Days Without You
by YourPinkDiary
Summary: Blaine always knew his Aunt Shelby couldn't have kids, but it was a surprise when he found out she'd adopted a little girl named Beth. However, he starts to get more curious about the boy, Kurt, who seems to always be visiting his aunt. Klaine. AU.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I don't own Glee.**

**A/N: This is just an idea I really randomly had and couldn't let go of. I wasn't going to work on anything until my fic Distraction was completed, but I found myself kind of drifting off at work and suddenly had a plot for this outlined and really wanted to write it. It's fairly AU, but I want to keep it so that most of the season 1 plot stays the same, some things will have to change, but they'll be revealed as the story progresses.**

**This is just the prologue and setting up the premise; the rest of the chapters will definitely be longer. **

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There were several things Kurt Hummel never wanted to hear in his life. Ever. Among them were;

_- '__Your fashion sense is horrendously outdated.'_

_- '__Your mum isn't actually dead, she just wanted a new start.'_

_- '__Rachel Berry is a fashion icon.'_

_- '__Lauren Zizes has the hots for you, big time.'_

- '_Sue Sylvester is a sane human being.'_

The list went on, but they were some of the big ones. However, the one phrase that would end up topping the list was one he couldn't have dreamed of in his wildest imagination. And had circumstances been different, he probably would have been highly amused by it. But things were what they were and he would quickly come to realise that there are some mistakes that are simply irreversible.

When Puck declared "Quinn's got one in the oven," he froze in disbelief. The words took several long seconds to sink in, and once they did, he didn't want to believe them. But everything was starting to make sense. Her suddenly going green and running out of the room during rehearsal, the way she snapped at people more frequently. The way she'd burst into tears when their maths teacher had told her she'd forgotten to move a decimal point one place over.

The conversation went on around him. When had it happened? How long had she known? Was there a chance it could be Finn's? Did her parents know? How could the Glee kids be so selfish as to be revelling in being the first to hear the scandal?

He couldn't breathe. He couldn't comprehend anything beyond "Quinn is pregnant."

Pregnant. As in, with a baby. As in, she was sixteen and going to be a mother and he...

Oh god.

His stomach dropped to his feet as a new wave of realisation and possibility hit him.

His feet were moving before he could think it through properly. He was vaguely aware of Mercedes calling his name, and him saying something about the bathroom. But his attention was on finding Quinn.

Who was pregnant.

By some miracle she was alone in the emptying corridor when he found her. She saw him and her step faltered slightly.

"Quinn," he said, not recognizing the hollow sound of his own voice. "Is it… are you…"

"It's Finn's." she said. A little too quickly.

"Quinn."

She glared at him. Her gaze pierced through him sharply, but he wasn't intimidated by her. He held his head steadily and looked her directly in the eye. Silently saying he wasn't going to back down.

"It's Finn's. That's the story I'm sticking with until I die. You can go now."

He shook his head. "Just... tell me. I need to know."

She bit her lip and glanced around. "Apparently condoms expire," there was a slight shake in her voice.

"So..."

She grabbed his collar roughly and pulled him close so they were nearly nose-to-nose. "It is not getting out that the flaming gay kid knocked me up. Ever. You understand?"

Kurt narrowed his gaze right back at her and stared at her steadily. "I understand perfectly. After all, I wouldn't want it getting out that I was that insecure in who I was that I slept with Quinn Fabray."

"So that's it then?" she let him go.

"That's it."

She stalked off and Kurt watched her leave. It wasn't until she was completely out of sight everything hit and he felt downright queasy, he rushed to the nearest bathroom where he promptly threw up. This couldn't be happening. Not to him, of _all_ people.

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**A/N: Let me know if you like where this is going. I'm really afraid people will hate it, so if you do like it… please tell me, haha. **


	2. Beth

**A/N: Thank you everyone! I was extremely nervous about how people would react to the prologue, but the comments were quite positive, and a lot of people put it in alert , which is awesome. So I really hope you guys like this chapter. It's not as exciting and drama filled as the last, but it is setting things up. So bear with me on it, please. **

**This is set around the beginning of season 2.**

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Blaine Anderson had always known his Aunt Shelby couldn't have children. It was an unspoken thing in their family that it wasn't brought up around her. His mother, her sister, had had three children, and their brother, his uncle, had had four. So the joys and burdens of raisings kids just wasn't brought up when she was around. Though, secretly, Blaine suspected that in the past she might have had a child. That was only from piecing snippets of conversation he'd overheard together over the years. However, what had happened to that child he had no idea. All he knew was that they weren't around. And he wasn't about to ask, "Hey, Aunt Shelbs, did you have a kid once?" he had more tact than that.

So it was a really big shock when his mother told him he had a new baby cousin.

It was quickly revealed his Aunt Shelby had adopted her. A little newborn named Beth. Where this child had come from was just as much of a mystery as where the other one had gone. He'd been assured it was all legal and fine, and he swore he heard something about a pregnant teen. But still... it had come out of nowhere for the entire family. They couldn't have been happier for her though.

He planned to visit. His aunt had sounded more full of joy on the phone talking about the baby girl than he'd ever heard her sound, and that in turn made him really happy for her.

The idea of not having kids was something he could relate to. Not that he thought too seriously about it, he was only sixteen, after all. But the idea of having a family when he was older appealed to him, and was an adventure he knew that one day he'd want to experience, if he found the right guy. The harsh reality was though, that it was hard for gay couples to adopt, to the point where it was borderline impossible and he couldn't help but feel that it would be something he'd unlikely ever get. So he knew what it felt like. To realise, you just might not end up having a family.

It was Tuesday night. Shelby said she got home at around seven, and that she would cook him dinner. A home-cooked meal would be a nice break from what he usually ate at Dalton. So at five past seven he pulled up in her driveway.

He was about to get out of the car when the front door opened. He stopped and watched.

A boy, average height, dressed in skinny jeans and a pale blue button down shirt, stepped out of the house. Blaine realised he couldn't have been much older than he was (in fact, he'd guess the boy was younger if anything). Though he carried himself with a rather straight posture, there was a sadness etched into his face. He pulled keys out of his pocket and quickly crossed the street, climbing into the sleek black Navigator parked there and left.

Blaine frowned, wondering who the boy was, but shrugged, deciding he could have been, and probably was most likely, one of his aunts old Vocal Adrenaline kids stopping by to say hello. He got out of the car, and nearly sprinted to the door. He couldn't wait to meet his new cousin.

He'd barely knocked on the door when she opened it to let him in.

"Hello Blaine,"

"Hi. How are you?" He asked politely, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek.

"I'm good. Come on, Beth is in the nursery, I know she's who you really want to see."

He gave her a sheepish grin. "I'm just... excited for you. And anxious, I tried so desperately to get out of our annual trip to Mexico so I could spend the summer here. But Mom wouldn't have any of it."

"I show her your picture every week, so she'll know who you are." Shelby teased (and for a moment Blaine couldn't tell if she was serious of not). "But yes, I'm still excited too. It's bedtime for her though, so she's not very awake. Next week I'll make sure Kurt doesn't put her down before he leaves and you can meet her properly."

"Kurt?" His curiosity peaked a little at the unfamiliar name.

"He's uh... he offered to baby sit for me on Tuesday afternoons."

Blaine nodded. "Cool. Yeah, I think I saw him leaving as I pulled up."

"That would have been him. Poor kid. He's got it pretty rough." She shook her head sadly.

"Rough, how exactly?"

Shelby could only shrug. "Same way you did before going that private school. Zero tolerance policies are rarer than they should be."

"Oh," he realised the implication of what she was saying, and he couldn't help but feel bad for the boy he didn't know. "That's tough."

"Yeah. Maybe I should introduce the two of you sometime, I get the feeling he feels quite alone sometimes."

Blaine smiled. "That'd be nice, maybe next week then?"

They reached the pink nursery and Blaine gasped as he peered in the room. There was a glittery, fairy mural painted on one wall, and a white book case covered in stuffed toys and photo frames. In the corner of the room a small cot was set up, a giant yellow 'B' hung on the wall next to it, and a mobile of cute cartoon characters hung over it.

"You outdid yourself Aunt Shelbs."

Shelby smiled at him. "Come on, go say hello to her." She guided him to the cot.

Blaine couldn't help but gasp when he saw her.

Wrapped up tightly in beige blankets was a tiny baby. Smaller than Blaine had ever seen. Not that he'd come across many four month old infants. He quickly found himself blinking back tears. The little girl had soft, fair hair on her head, long brown eyelashes that rested lightly on pale skin and, she sleepily opened her eyes and stared at him for a moment... bright sea coloured eyes. They were large, and blue with flecks of green. He swore she smile him the slightest of smiles.

Her eyes fluttered close again and Blaine realised his heart was pounding.

"She's beautiful," he said softly, almost afraid to break the silence of the room and disturb the baby girl.

Shelby nodded. "She's absolutely precious."

"I am so, so happy for you, Shelbs. Really, I am."

Shelby smiled and grabbed Blaine's hand. "Blaine, I'm not planning on getting her properly christened. But... still, I'd like to ask you, would you unofficially be her godfather?"

Blaine's eyes went wide. "Are you serious?"

She nodded.

A smile broke out of his face and he hugged her. "Absolutely. Of course I will. I'm so honoured you would even ask."

"I wouldn't ask anyone else. Don't tell your siblings, or cousins but, you're my favourite nephew."

A happy sleepy gargling noise came from the girl in the cot. Blaine and Shelby both looked back towards her and smiled.

"Come on, let's go eat."

"I'm starving."

Shelby had prepared a roast for him, it was just about done because she'd asked Kurt to put it in the oven for her. Blaine quickly piled up his plate with beef, vegetables and gravy, his stomach growling at the sight.

"So, how's that Glee club of yours going?" She asked.

Blaine raised his eyebrows. "I thought we weren't allowed to talk Glee."

"I'm not coaching Vocal Adrenaline anymore. I think it's alright to talk about it."

He shrugged. "Yeah, pretty good actually. We've got invitationals coming up in two weeks for the new competition season. So everything's been about getting ready for that."

"And how many solo's do you have?" She asked with a knowing smile.

Blaine blushed a little. "A couple." He said, trying to remain modest. "Two out of three." He admitted.

Shelby scoffed. "Please, if that club knows what's good for it they'd give you all of them."

"There's a lot of talent amongst the Warbler's though, it wouldn't be fair to not showcase it."

"You're far too modest Blaine. It kills me sometimes."

Blaine just let out a laugh.

An hour and a half later Blaine realised he had to leave to get back to school in time for curfew. As he was leaving Shelby promised he would get to meet Beth properly next week and Blaine grinned. He couldn't wait.

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**A/N: This is fun to write :) if you like it, leave a review maybe? It'd be awesome. **

**Next chapter; Blaine and Kurt meet and it's… interesting… ;) **


	3. Kurt

**A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who has read/alerted/reviewed/favourited this story. Honestly, thank you guys! I can't express how awesome it is. I really hope you enjoy this chapter. **

**In this, Kurt and Blaine meet. Squeal.**

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Next Tuesday came by quickly. All weekend the Warblers had been rehearsing for their invitationals performance the following Saturday and Blaine was still recovering from it. But as he'd finally pulled up to his aunt's house, after the two hours drive, he was suddenly alert and awake again, anticipating to actually get to meet his new adopted cousin properly.

He was early, by about fifteen minutes. The black Navigator of the boy who baby-sat for his Aunt Shelby (the name of who had currently evaded Blaine's memory, it started with a K) was still parked across the street, he wasn't even sure if his aunt would be home yet.

Blaine considered waiting out the fifteen minutes in his car. But after the Bruno Mars track finished and a Katy Perry song came on his iPod (he wondered what an A Capella version of Teenage Dream would sound like… it would be something to subtly suggest to Wes, so he'd bring it up to the rest of the council) he decided he should just go in. It wasn't like he _should_ feel strange. It was his Aunt's house, and in the past he'd spent a lot of time there, it was sort of his third home (his real home being his first, and Dalton Academy being his second), so why should he be afraid to go in there?

Resolved, he quickly turned off the ignition and walked up the small path to the front door, where he knocked politely.

"Can I help you?" The door swung open and Blaine forgot himself for a moment.

Last week, he'd only seen the boy (and for the love of God he could _not_ remember his name) at a distance. He was taller than Blaine, only by a couple of inches though. His had light brown hair, done in a coiffed style that suited him (and Blaine could appreciate anyone who took time with their hair, considering his own gelled locks). He wore red jeans, and Blaine hadn't previously been aware they made jeans that _tight_, and a light grey knitted lose-fitting jumper. His skin was pale and an irritated look was planted on his face.

Blaine cleared his throat awkwardly, when the boys arched eyebrow made him realise he'd been staring for longer than socially acceptable, quite openly and obviously. He just hoped his sudden flush went unnoticed.

"Uh, I'm Blaine." He said, feeling a little stupid.

"Ok." He nodded. "If you're hear to sell me something or, preach, at me or whatever, I'd rather save us both the time and shut the door on you now."

"No." Blaine quickly shook his head. "Sorry, I should have clarified. I'm Shelby's nephew."

"Oh." Recognition lit up in the boy's eyes. "So you're the reason I have a screaming child right now?"

"What?" Blaine frowned.

"She's over tired and restless. But apparently, you want to meet her and so I haven't gotten her settled for bed yet. Why couldn't you come during the day on the weekend?"

"Uh… I'm busy." He said.

"Right." The boy's eyes flickered to Blaine's uniform. "Bet they load you up with homework at a school like that."

"Actually…" Blaine started, then realised how lame 'I've had Glee practise all weekend' actually sounded and instead shrugged. "Yeah, massive paper. Anyway, is Shelby home?"

The boy rolled his eyes. "Does it look like she's home yet? You're early."

"I know." Blaine shrugged. "I got out of school early."

"It's quarter to seven in the evening?"

"My school's in Westerville, and I had stuff on after class finished. Look, do you want me to go back and sit in my car for the next ten minutes, you're obviously in a bad mood."

The boy winced and brought a hand to his forehead, rubbing it gently. "Sorry. It's just been one of those days. And now she won't stop screaming and it's driving me insane and I just… sorry."

Blaine offered the boy a friendly smile. "Do you want me to take it from here? You can go home if you'd like."

There was that arched eyebrow again. "Do you know what to do with a four month old child?"

"Uh…"

The boy sighed. "You might as well come on in."

Blaine nodded and awkwardly stepped into the house, while the boy shut the door behind him.

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name."

"It's Kurt." He said bluntly.

Blaine didn't know what else to do so he followed Kurt into the kitchen. At the table, in a highchair sat the four-month-old child, sucking happily on a pacifier. Blaine had no idea what Kurt had been talking about when he mentioned an overtired screaming child. She looked perfectly happy to him.

On the kitchen counter Kurt seemed to be preparing something. There were various vegetables chopped up in bowls and bottles of ingredients out everywhere.

Blaine gingerly took a seat on one of the stools (he would have rather headed straight over to Beth and pick her up and play with her, but he felt uncertain about doing so) at the kitchen counter.

"Would you like a drink?" Kurt offered.

"No thank you."

Kurt shrugged and picked up a knife and resumed slicing a carrot. Blaine watched in fascination as he expectedly manoeuvred the knife. The kitchen was quiet except for the knife hitting the chopping board repeatedly, and Blaine unconsciously drummed his fingers on the bench in time.

"So…" He said, breaking the silence. "Are you… one of the Vocal Adrenaline kids?"

Kurt scoffed. "Please, do I look like an emotionless robot?"

"Just trying to make conversation."

Kurt made a non-committal sound and moved onto the broccoli.

"I'm in New Directions, actually." He said finally. "The McKinley High Glee club."

Blaine found himself grinning at that, at least he'd found some sort of common ground with this boy. "Oh really?" He asked. "That's awesome."

"Really?" Kurt gave him a sceptical look. "I'd have pegged you for the 'glee is lame' type."

Blaine shook his head. "Not at all. I'm part of my school's club actually."

For the first time since he'd opened the door, Kurt actually looked interested in something Blaine was saying. "Really?" he asked. "You're not just pulling my leg?"

"Of course not, the Dalton Academy Warblers. Do you guys compete?"

Kurt nodded. "We only got to regionals last year. Lost to Vocal Adrenaline."

"And now you're Shelby Corcoran's baby sitter? That seems like an unlikely outcome."

An undefined emotion flashed through Kurt's eyes and he faltered his chopping for a moment. "She needed a baby sitter, I needed a job." He said finally.

Blaine couldn't shake the feeling there might have been more to it. But decided not to push it, he already got the feeling he wasn't Kurt's favourite person in the world and wanted to try and rectify that. Whatever reasons he had for babysitting for his aunt were his own (as long as they weren't cruel intentions, but Kurt seemed fairly harmless).

"Hey, don't worry. She's _my_ aunt, and we lost to them at sectionals. That was embarrassing. And made for awkward family conversation." He said with a bit of a laugh

"Right."

There was a whimper, and then an out right, ear piercing scream. Blaine jumped in shocked, while Kurt just groaned.

Beth's pacifier had fallen to the ground and now her face was red and scrunched up as she screamed. Blaine thought back to the peaceful, happy looking baby he'd met the previous week and was startled at the contrast. Her fist hit against the high chair she was in and her legs flailed about as she squirmed, clearly wanting to be anywhere else.

Kurt set the knife down and wiped his hands on a tea towel before heading over to her. He picked the pacifier up and tossed it to Blaine, who barely caught it.

"Rinse it off." He said.

Blaine stared completely dumbfounded as Kurt expertly undid the confines of the high chair and lifted Beth up out of it.

"Shh," he crooned to the baby. "It's ok. It's ok." He glanced over to Blaine. "With water."

"Right!" Blaine suddenly jumped into action and headed to the sink. However, he could barely take his eyes off Kurt and his cousin.

She continued to scream and wail, and squirm around in Kurt's arms, but Kurt didn't let go of her. He simply held onto her and rocked her gently back and forth, muttering to her. He paced back and forth a little, trying to get her to calm down. It wasn't until he started singing softly to her that she began to settle down at all. The crying continued, but she stopped wriggling around as if trying to get away from him. Encouraged, Kurt sang a little louder and suddenly Beth stopped altogether and simply stared at him with wide eyes.

The silence snapped Blaine back to reality. He shut off the water and brought the pacifier over. However Kurt didn't notice, he continued singing to the girl.

Blaine couldn't help but notice that Kurt had a beautiful falsetto, he was reaching notes Blaine couldn't dream of and it sounded effortless. He was still singing softly, but there was something almost, otherworldly about his voice. It seemed to enchant the small child in his arms, who looked up at him in wonder.

Kurt went on until he reached the end of the song.

Blaine cleared his throat, and held out the pacifier to him. He could only hope Kurt didn't notice the way his hands were shaking a little as he took it.

"Thank you." Kurt said softly and gave it to Beth, who started sucking on it immediately.

"You're amazing with her." Blaine's voice was barely above a whisper. "Really."

Kurt looked at the tiny child in his arms with an expression Blaine could only describe as love. And for the life of him Blaine couldn't work out why this boy would care so much about a child he baby sat once a week for a bit of spare change.

"You do what you have to." He said with a soft voice. Kurt then looked away from Beth and back to Blaine. "Do you want to hold her for a while?"

"I uh… I don't…"

"It's ok." Kurt smiled at him. "You won't drop her."

"Alright." Blaine took a hesitant step towards Kurt. "Um… I don't know what to do."

"Ok, just hold your arms out." Kurt directed Blaine, telling him where to put his hands and where to support her. There was an occasional whimper from Beth, but mostly she was quiet. Finally Blaine had the girl safely in his arms, she was upright, but leaned heavily against his shoulder as her eyelids started to droop sleepily. When Kurt was convinced Blaine had a properly hold of her he stepped back and observed the teenage boy with his cousin.

Blaine looked away from Beth and over to Kurt who simply stared. His eyes were a little wide, and his expression wasn't something Blaine could easily read. Blaine gave him a hesitant smile, but Kurt's eyes were glued to the baby girl.

"Well, isn't this a sight for sore eyes." A voice came from the door way and Shelby stepped into the kitchen.

Blaine gave his aunt a smile, and she smiled back.

"I think she likes you."

Blaine would have shrugged if he could. "I don't think it would matter who I was, she's nearly asleep."

"I see the two of you have met already." She glanced between Blaine and Kurt briefly, then her eyes fell on the food over the kitchen counter. "Oh, Kurt, you didn't have to do that."

The teenager shrugged. "I don't mind, honestly. It gave me something to do."

"Would you like to stay for dinner? Seems only fair to repay you."

"Oh…" Kurt glanced to Blaine. "I wouldn't want to intrude or anything."

"You wouldn't be, would he Blaine?"

"No, not at all." Blaine said earnestly. "You should stay."

"Alright. I'll just let my dad know." Kurt gave them a small smile and pulled out his phone.

"I'll get all this cooking." Shelby said. "How about you boys go put Beth to bed. I think she's already asleep on Blaine's shoulder as it is."

Blaine followed Kurt down the hallway to Beth's room. He once again was in awe, particularly at the mural painting covering the wall, because it was a breathtakingly beautiful scene. Kurt caught him looking at it.

"I helped paint it." He said, looking a little proud of himself.

Blaine's mouth fell open. "Really?"

Kurt just nodded and moved towards him, holding his hands out. "Do you mind if I just…"

"Oh, yeah, here." Blaine turned so that Kurt could take Beth from him at an easier angle. She was fast asleep, and didn't so much as stir. Once Kurt had a firm grip on her, Blaine stepped back and watched as the boy gently lay her down in the cot. He mumbled softly under his breath to her as he tucked the blankets around her. Something stirred in the pit of Blaine's stomach, there was something about the way Kurt handled the child that was not only impressive, but so… loving… and Blaine couldn't help the way it made him smile.

Kurt stared at her for a moment longer and then turned back to Blaine, trying to clear the sad expression off his face, but Blaine caught it anyway.

"I've said it before, but really Kurt, you're amazing with her."

He gave a half smile. "Thank you. Really, you don't… that means a lot."

"You're welcome." Blaine said softly. "We should go back, help Shelbs with dinner or something." Before he could think about what he was doing, he'd grabbed Kurt's hand and started pulling him down the hall.


	4. Dinner

**A/N: So… I just heard 'Somewhere Only We Know' and I'm dying of its awesomeness. Seriously, it's the most emotional song Darren has sung on the show and I'm just in awe of it. Hiatus _needs to end now_. It's killing me.**

**I would also like to say thank you. This story already has like… 90 alerts or something, which is insane, and over 3000 hits. So thank you, all of you. If I never replied to your review it's because it was anonymous, or I couldn't actually remember if I had replied to you or not, and I'm really sorry about that.**

**I hope this chapter isn't too dull, it was a real struggle to write for some reason. There will be more drama next chapter. Which should be good fun. **

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As they reached the kitchen Kurt pulled his hand from Blaine's almost violently. Blaine frowned, wondering what he'd done to offend the teenager, then realised perhaps, grabbing a near strangers hand might not be completely socially acceptable. He wanted to apologise, but Kurt had already approached his aunt and was asking if he could help with anything.

"No, you've done enough already Kurt. Blaine, could you get out some plates and set out the table?"

"Yeah, sure." He said. As he moved around the kitchen he was acutely aware of Kurt's eyes following him. He avoided looking in Kurt's direction at all. He suddenly wished he could take the hand holding back. He honestly didn't know why he'd given into the compulsive urge to grab the boy's hand. It had been too much hadn't it? Too forward. Too…

He stole a look at Kurt (whose eyes quickly dropped to the floor, and if Blaine wasn't mistaken, a slight flush coloured his cheeks at being caught), the way he was dressed, the way his hair was done so precisely… surely he hadn't misread _that_?

Maybe he had. And that, well, quite frankly was a little embarrassing.

It wasn't like he was coming onto him. Not at all. Kurt wasn't even his type. It was just… Kurt had looked a little down and he'd thought the comfort might be helpful.

He tried to not think about it. Hopefully Kurt would put the little mishap behind him and Blaine wouldn't have to think about it ever again. Instead, he tore his eyes away from the boy and helped his aunt put the food out on the table.

"So, Kurt, how was your day?" She asked.

Kurt shrugged. "It was alright." He gave a forced, almost sarcastic smile. "I only got slushied once, so it was a vast improvement on yesterday."

Shelby shook her head. "The things that go on at that school…" She said.

"S- slushied?" Blaine asked hesitantly. He was so sure he'd misheard what Kurt said. He was slushied? What was that? Some sort of public school slang he was severely out of the loop of?

Kurt met Blaine's eyes briefly before looking away. "It's when someone throws a slushie at you."

Blaine could feel his jaw drop. "What? Like a slushie as in, ice and syrup?"

"Yep. That would be the one." He said casually, as if it were nothing.

"And that happens _in school_? During school hours?"

Kurt nodded and took another bite of his salad. "We've learnt to keep a change of clothes in our locker." He shrugged. "I'm not the only one it happens to."

Blaine was shaking his head. "That's… that's unbelievable. I honestly cannot… wow. And I thought my old school sucked."

Kurt responded with another shrug and didn't say anything else.

"What about Glee?" Shelby asked. "You guys gearing up for the new competition?"

"Yeah. This is our most important year ever." His eyes lit up a little at the thought of Glee.

"Why is that?" Blaine asked curiously. For the Warbler's no year was more important than the other, except maybe for the Senior's, because it was their last.

Kurt's eyes flickered to him, almost sizing him up, then sighed. "If we don't place this year, the school is cancelling the club."

"Good luck then." Shelby said. "I can root for you guys now I'm not coaching Vocal Adrenaline anymore."

"What about us Shelbs?" Blaine asked teasingly. "You're not going to root for your own nephew's choir?"

Kurt laughed. "I think that Shelby's own d…" He stopped suddenly. "That it's her own decision." He finished quietly.

"Right…" Blaine frowned at Kurt

"So, Blaine, what's new with you?" Shelby asked quickly changing the subject. "Any guys I should know about?"

Blaine felt his face heat up. "No Shelbs. There's no one."

There was a clatter from where Kurt was sitting and Blaine glanced over to see Kurt, red-faced and reaching down to pick something off the ground.

"What about that Jeff boy?"

He sighed. "Jeff's _straight_ we've been through this."

"Oh, but you were so smitten, and he was so adorable."

His face went redder, he could feel it and he found himself willing the ground to swallow him up. It was _not_ a conversation he wanted to be having. "I was not _smitten_. I just had a misguided crush. Not that anyone could blame me." He muttered. "I mean come _on_ he bleaches his hair, and straightens it more than freaking Justin Bieber."

"You're gay?" Kurt asked in a quiet voice.

This time Blaine did look at Kurt. "Yeah, why?"

"Nothing I just…" He trailed off in a quiet mumble, and even straining Blaine couldn't hear what he said.

"Sorry, what?"

"I've never met anyone else who's out before." He was a steady shade of red and Blaine couldn't but smile at how cute it was.

"Oh…" Blaine actually couldn't work out what else to say and a silence fell over them.

In the silence, a small whimper could be heard. Blaine looked around confused. Beth's room was all the way down the other end of the house... so what was the sound? There was a second whimper, and without a word Kurt suddenly stood up and left, headed towards Beth's room.

"What was that?" He asked Shelby.

"The baby monitor, he's just checking up on her."

"Oh..." Blaine thought over it for a moment. "Isn't that sort of your job?"

"I know he's got it under control, besides, as much as I simply adore being a mother, it's nice to have a break every now and then. And Kurt's always more than eager to help, plus he's amazing with her."

"Yeah, I've seen, but... about Kurt..." Blaine bit his lip, unsure of how to approach the topic with his aunt.

Shelby raised and eyebrow and waited for him to continue.

"Don't you think he's, well... really attached to Beth? I mean, just the way he was acting with her today... I dunno, it just seemed... odd, I guess. He's just her baby sitter."

"Blaine, honey," Shelby patted his shoulder, "Kurt has... well, he's been through a lot. It's not really my place to tell you. But I can tell you for a fact, that Tuesdays are his favourite day of the week because he gets to come here, and look after Beth. And there's a lot in his life I wish I could take care of for him, but I can't. So letting him take care of her every once in a while is the most I can do."

Blaine shook his head. "I really don't understand."

"That's because you have Dalton. He's taking a little while. Do you want to go and see if he needs help at all?"

He froze. "I wouldn't know what to do."

"Kurt will show you."

He felt like he was walking through the hall in slow motion before he finally reached the door of Beth's room. It was wide open, but Kurt hadn't seen him. Blaine was going to go straight in, but stopped when he saw Kurt cradling the girl gently and muttering to her.

He should have turned away. It seemed like such an intimate private moment that wasn't meant for an audience, but he couldn't tear himself away.

"I love you Beth." He was saying, there was agony in his voice as he struggled to keep it steady. "I wish… I wish you could know that. I wish you could know I'd be there for you, in a second, I'd be there. For any thing, any time. I can't bear the thought that you might ever think I've abandoned you." He gently put her in the cot, she was now fast asleep. "But you deserve more out of life. So much more. Sleep tight baby girl." He leant over and kissed her.

Blaine chose that moment to knock gently on the door, making his presence known. Kurt spun around quickly, looking alarmed. Blaine didn't miss his bloodshot eyes, but didn't comment.

"Just seeing if you needed help. But it looks like you've got it under control."

Kurt nodded. "She won't wake up again for a couple of hours now."

"I know I said it before, but, you're amazing with her. Where did you learn to be so good with kids? Do you have younger siblings?"

Kurt cast a glance back to Beth, before they left the room and he shrugged. "No, no siblings."

Blaine frowned, but Kurt moved ahead of him and walked back into the dining room.

"She's fine." He announced to Shelby. "Just somehow managed to get tangled up in her blankets. It was kind of cute actually."

"Thank you sweetie." Shelby said smiling at him.

Kurt sat back down. As he did a smile crossed his face. "Oh, I have to tell you what Rachel did last week. It was a whole new level of, well... Berry."

Blaine felt his aunt shift in her seat and looked at her to find an uncomfortable look on her face. Kurt, must have seen it too.

"Oh, it can… wait for another time if you want." He said, he gave a concerned glance to Blaine.

Shelby shook her head. "No, you've already got me hooked, I need to know. What happened?"

Kurt launched into a story about this girl, Rachel (who sounded almost clinically insane, to Blaine) and how she chased away an exchange student by sending her to a crack house, for an audition, or something. Blaine just stared at Kurt in disbelief as Kurt retold the story as though it was nothing out of the ordinary. Apparently, the new Vocal Adrenaline coach caught onto the new girl's talent and got her to transfer.

Blaine nearly spat out his drink. "They did _what_?"

Kurt nodded gravely. "Oh yes. I wish I was kidding."

"Does this sort of drama always go on in the show choir circle? I had no idea about it."

Kurt gave him an amused smile. "You really do have no idea." He shook his head. "Oh the stories I could tell you."

"But they can wait for another day." Shelby said pointedly.

Blaine shook his head, ever thankful for the order and tradition the Warbler's had that meant they avoided fiascos like that.

Kurt left straight after dinner, he disappeared to say goodbye to Beth (even though she was asleep) and hugged Shelby goodbye. When he'd gotten to Blaine there had been a moment where neither was sure what to do, and they settled on an awkward handshake. Just before he left, Blaine had found himself blurting out,

"If you ever want to talk... I... well, I'd be happy to listen."

Kurt had given him a strange look and nodded before leaving.

Before he left, an hour later, Shelby slipped a piece of paper into his hand and told him to put it to good use. Once in his car, Blaine looked at it. It was a cell number with _Kurt Hummel _written next to it.


	5. Hospitals

**A/N: So... hopefully ffn has decided to stop throwing a hissy fit now, haha. **

**W**_**arning**_** this is the chapter of much angst. It was pretty depressing to write. But answers some of the questions you guys have, but not all of them, because that's not fun, haha. Once again, thank you **_**so much**_** for being awesome with alerting, and favouriting and reviewing this story. It means a lot to me, really. **

**Fandom Wes and David in this because they're more fun :)**

* * *

Blaine's thumb hovered over the 'send' button for a long time before he finally had the courage to hit it. He'd re-written the message several times, not too sure why it was so important to him to have it worded right. He still wasn't happy with it, but he hit send before he could back out, yet again, like he had for the past four days.

_Hi Kurt, it's Blaine, Shelby's nephew. Just wanted to say it was awesome meeting you the other day._

A reply came only a few minutes later.

_How did you get my number?_

_I'm a serial stalker ;)_ he hit send and immediately regretted it. He didn't know what sense of humour Kurt had… what if he didn't get he was joking? _Actually; Shelbs gave it to me.__  
_  
"Blaaaaiiiinnneee!" someone ran down the hall to the study room screaming. Their quick heavy footsteps echoed throughout the empty school. It was a Saturday and most kids were either home for the weekend or sleeping.

"What?" Blaine asked, raising an eyebrow at Wes' behaviour.

"I love you." Wes said, slightly out of breath. "I. Love _you_."

"Er… why?"

"Teenage Dream."

Blaine raised his eyebrows. "My hands aren't going anywhere near your skin tight jeans."

"I meant arranging it for us to do." he said. "It's genius. I have it all done and ready to pitch to the rest of the council. They'll love it though, and if David doesn't I'll threaten to terminate our friendship and together we'll outvote Thad anyway. It'll be amazing. This competition is ours. No more losing to that stupid Vocal Adrenaline. No offence to your Aunt."

Blaine shrugged. "She doesn't coach them anymore." his phone buzzed from next to him and he smiled. Vaguely aware of Wes' peaked interest as he picked it up to see a message from Kurt.

_As long as the stalking doesn't get creepy I can deal. I suppose I should say it was nice meeting you to. _

His phone buzzed again seconds later.

_Sorry, that implied I was saying that out of obligation. I'm not. I'm also sorry about my being in a bad mood on Tuesday. _

_Hey, it's cool, we all have off days right?_Blaine couldn't think of what else to write so he hit send an looked up to find Wes giving him a wide grin… the one that started things that never ended well.

"What?"

"Someone special?"

"Who?"

"The texting! I haven't seen you smile that big since Jeff told you he really liked your voice."

"It's no one?" Blaine winced the second it came out as more of a question than a statement.

"Uh huh?" Wes used lighting quick movements Blaine didn't even know he had to grab the phone. "No one named Kurt Hummel huh? Interesting. You've never spoken about him."

"He baby sits for Shelby on Tuesdays he's usually leaving just as I get there."

"And... you have his phone number because?" He asked, scrolling through the conversation. "Oh, your aunt gave it to you. That's cute. She's setting you up with her babysitter. David I were just talking the other day that it's about time you got a boyfriend."

"Shut up." Blaine snatched his phone back.

"Do you like him? Is he cute? What does he look like? What colour are his eyes, his hair? Does he have good teeth… that's important and often overlooked."

"If you don't stop talking I'll quit."

"Quit what? You don't smoke. Or do you? Because if you do, and you're going to quit, that's good because that's a nasty habit you're far too young for. Tell me more about the guy. It's about time you got some."

Blaine gave him a look. "I'm leaving now."

"Wait! You'll still sing for us, right?"

"Yes Wes."

"Oh, good."

Blaine grabbed his phone back and as he did checked to see if during the pointless conversation with Wes, Kurt had replied. He had.

… and apparently so had he.

_I've had an off week it seems. _

_Tell Blainey Bear all about it._ Blaine blanched at the message. He was going. To. Kill. Wes.

_What?_ Kurt had replied.

Blaine really quickly typed out a reply, hoping against all hope that Kurt would understand.

_Sorry, I have idiots for friends. I tried to stop them, I'm putting a passcode on my phone right now. Sucks you've been having a crap week._

Thankfully Kurt didn't ask about the 'Blainey Bear' message again. Blaine was sure he was grinning like an idiot as he messaged with Kurt for the rest of the afternoon. But he didn't care. It wasn't that he liked the boy… well, he liked him fine enough, he just didn't like him. It was just… Kurt could keep up with him in conversation, and they had a bit in common, which was awesome.

They ended on Blaine promising to get to Shelby's early again on Tuesday so they could continue to talk.

**X X X**

Blaine hadn't heard from Kurt again. It was Tuesday, and as promised Blaine was at Shelby's early. But as he pulled up, there was no familiar black Navigator parked across the street, or anywhere else.

He tried not to get too worried (and he tried not to think about why he would be worried in the first place). Hoping that maybe it was just that someone had dropped him off, or something…

He knocked on the door and waited. When the door opened to reveal the face of his Aunt his heart sunk.

"Hi Blaine." She smiled at him. He gave a half-hearted one back.

"Hi."

She let him in and he followed her into the kitchen.

"So… where's Kurt?" He asked.

Shelby turned to face him, a sad smile was on her face. "He couldn't make it today." She said.

"Why? What's wrong? Is he sick?"

"No, well, he's not the one who's sick."

"Then… what?"

"His Dad is in the hospital and he's… he's not very well at all."

"Oh." Blaine couldn't think of what else to say.

"Didn't you have invitationals recently?" Shelby asked, quickly changing the topic.

"Oh, yeah… guess who's going to be competing at sectionals?" He said grinning.

**X X X **

The following day Blaine found himself at the hospital Kurt's dad had been admitted to. He wasn't entirely sure why, or how he'd ended up there. Just that… the night before he'd sent Kurt a message, saying that he heard and how sorry he was, and he hadn't gotten a reply.

Blaine found the room and knocked hesitantly on the door. It was a single hospital room, with that eerily pristine and chemically clean smell to it. Everything seemed to be a variation on a shade of white, blue or grey.

The man lying in the bed was older. He had little hair on his head and was extremely pale and colourless. His sickly look only emphasised by the machines he was hooked up to. Even as the man lay motionless, with the shallow rise and fall of his chest as he breathed being the only movement he made, Blaine could see a vague resemblance to the boy he'd met at his aunt's.

The same boy that was sitting on a hard plastic chair wearing a white collared shirt, and black vest. He stared blankly at his father, he hadn't noticed Blaine at all.

"Kurt?"

Kurt's head snapped up and he looked surprised. "Blaine? What are you doing here?"

Blaine noticed the boy's voice sounded hollow and empty. His eyes were dull and lifeless and his whole demeanour was just... different.

"I... Shelby told me what happened. I thought I'd... come and see how you are."

"Oh I'm just fine." Kurt's voice dripped with sarcasm. "My dad is dying, my friends keep telling me things would be better if I just believed in God, like it's as easy as snapping your fingers. And apparently, bullies don't care if your life is going down the drain, they'll still slushy you."

"Kurt." Blaine took the seat next to him. "I'm _so_sorry."

Kurt shrugged. "So am I."

They were silent for a while.

"Blaine can... can I ask you something."

"Yeah, sure."

"What do you think... about the whole God thing?"

Blaine sighed, then shrugged. "I don't really know." he said honestly. "I mean, I believe God's real to some extent. I'd like to think he cares about us, but you can never really be sure, can you?"

Kurt looked disappointed and Blaine couldn't fathom why.

"What's wrong?"

"I was kind of hoping you'd be more like me."

"You don't believe in God." Blaine stated, there was no judging or condemnation in his voice, it was just simply a fact.

Kurt nodded. "If the next words you say are 'give it go', or anything to that extent, you can just leave now. I'm sick of hearing it."

Blaine just shrugged. "I don't care what you believe. I think each person goes on their own journey to come to a conclusion about faith and there's nothing right or wrong about it. It just is."

"Praying didn't help my mom. It didn't help me last year when I was going through hell. It hasn't stopped the Neanderthals on the football team from shoving me into lockers. It's not going to help now. Even if God's real, he so doesn't give a crap about what's happening here."

Blaine didn't say anything, he knew there was nothing he could say that would help. Instead he took Kurt's hand in his and held it tightly. Kurt flinched slightly, but then relaxed and made no move to pull away. They sat like that for a long time. Nearly fifteen minutes passed before Blaine noticed the boy next to him was shuddering.

"Hey, it's ok." he rubbed Kurt's back with his free hand and Kurt dissolved completely, turning towards Blaine and clutching at his blazer. Blaine wrapped his arms around the shaking boy. He didn't know what to say so he just held Kurt and let him cry.

"I can't lose him." he cried. "I can't lose my dad. I hate this goddamn place. I keep losing the people I care about, my mom, Beth, and now... I can't lose him. I'll have no one. I can't lose him Blaine."

"It's ok." Blaine tried to sooth him. "It's going to be alright." then, something Kurt said dawned on him. He knew it probably wasn't the most appropriate time, but the question slipped from his mouth before he could really think about it.

"What do you mean you lost Beth?"

Kurt slowly pulled himself out of Blaine's hold and stared at him with wide eyes.

**X X X**

_June 8, 2010_

Shelby and Rachel rushed into the hospital. Vocal Adrenaline had just won the Regionals competition and the New Directions were devastated it meant the end of their club. However, there were bigger things to focus on. Like the fact Quinn had just given birth to her daughter.

Out in the waiting room by himself was Kurt Hummel. He was visibly shaking and looked paler than usual. There was no colour left in his face as he stared blankly at the wall in front of him. Concern washed over Shelby's face. She didn't know the boy, she'd never spoken to him, and the little she knew about him was what Rachel had told her. But without knowing him, she knew there was something wrong. So did Rachel.

"Kurt," The girl stepped forward as his gaze snapped over to her. "Are you ok?"

The boy seemed unable to find the words to answer her question.

Shelby put a hand on Rachel's shoulder.

"Rachel, you go on ahead. I'll talk to him."

She nodded and took one last look at Kurt before heading down the corridor looking for everyone else.

Shelby sat down next to Kurt.

"Are you alright?"

He shook his head mutely.

"Did you see something that freaked you out?"

"She's in there... having a baby." his voice, barely above a whisper shook unsteadily as he spoke.

"Yeah."

"And they... they don't know. They have no idea." he blinked back tears, and took another shaky breath. "I'm probably never even going to get to see her."

Shelby, not quite sure was the distraught boy was talking about, rubbed his back soothingly. "It's ok."

"No! No it's not ok. She's in there having a baby. Giving birth to... to _my _child and I'm never going to get to see her, never going to get to hold her. She's never going to know she was mine and..."

He couldn't control the tears anymore.

"You're the father?" Shelby asked. She was confused, and surprised. Rachel had said the boy with the Mohawk, Puck, was the father of Quinn's child.

Kurt nodded. "No one knows. Not a single person except me, Quinn and now you. I'm sixteen and a father. She'll probably be the only kid I ever have, and I'm never even going to see her."

"Oh honey." Shelby enveloped him in a tight hug and Kurt cried into her shoulder.

"I hate this." he sobbed. "I hate this so much."

For a while Shelby just let him sit there and cry. She was aware that those also sitting in the waiting room were trying hard not to stare, but it didn't matter at that point.

Once he finally was starting to calm down she spoke to him softly, and carefully.

"Kurt, honey… I think you should go and see her."

He lifted his head, his face and eyes were red, cheeks stained with tears. "Why?" He asked hollowly.

"I think you need to."

Somehow, though he didn't quite remember, he was standing at the window looking into the hospital's nursery. There were several rows of newborn babies, but somehow his eyes were instinctively drawn to 'Beth Fabray'. She was asleep, wrapped up in pink blankets, and looked so peaceful and angelic.

"She's perfect."

Kurt glanced beside him where Quinn was now standing. He noted she looked exhausted dressed in a robe, her hair pulled back into a messy ponytail, and there were dark circles under her eyes.

"She is." He said.

Quinn's moved her hand to rest on top of his on the slight windowsill.

"I'm sorry." She said. "I, I've been selfish."

"You had every right to be." His voice wasn't much more than a whisper.

"I know. But, I never once stopped to think about how you felt. And… I've wanted to tell you that… I think you could have made a great father." She squeezed his hand. "Especially because you've got such a great role model."

"Thank you." He held her hand tightly back. "For what it's worth, you could have made a great mother."

Quinn smiled. "At least we know she'll be beautiful."

Kurt glanced away from the baby and looked at her with a smile. "Yeah, with my bone structure, and your complexion she'll be stunning."

"Hey… oh."

The two of them looked and saw Puck staring at them. His eyes travelled to their joined hands, and then back to Quinn.

"I uh, just wanted to see how you were doing, Quinn."

"I'm fine." She said.

"Good, that's… that's good." His eyes drifted back to their hands, and Kurt quickly snatched his away, lightening fast, as if being burnt. "I'm glad." He said, then left.

Kurt looked back at Quinn and smiled sadly. "I think you're making the right decision, giving her to Rachel's mom." He said.

"She won't have a father." She said.

"But she still have more than we ever could have given her."

**X X X**

Kurt realised he couldn't tell Blaine that story. Not now, not ever. Blaine couldn't know about Beth. So he looked Blaine in eye and lied outright to him.

"Beth is... was my... my younger sister. I guess that's why I can't help but love your cousin so much, they… share a name, and she… reminds me of her."

"I'm so sorry Kurt. What happened to her?"

"There were... complications with my mother's pregnancy. Beth had to come out early and... the doctors did what they could but we still lost her. She was just too small."

"That's awful Kurt. Really."

Kurt shrugged. "It was a long time ago. But now... I _can't_lose another member of my family here, in this hospital. I just can't." Because while Beth wasn't really his sister, and hadn't actually died, that day when she was handed over to Shelby, Kurt still felt as though he'd lost her.

Once again Blaine wrapped his arms around the slender boy, holding him tightly.

"It's going to be ok."

"You can't promise that."

"But know that I would in a heartbeat if I could."


	6. Quinn

**A/N: Seriously, thank you **_**so much**_** for all the lovely reviews. I honestly cannot say thank you enough for them. I'm amazed people are reading this at all, let alone then taking the time to review. So thank you. **

**Sorry for the delay in updating, apparently, other people have decided I should be social and go out and… do stuff… and talk to people… it's weird.**

* * *

All day Blaine hadn't been able to get Kurt out of his mind. He couldn't help but feel so sad for the boy. Blaine had thought he had had to go through some tough things, and he had, but in comparison to the hand Kurt had been dealt, Blaine felt like he'd been really quick to run away from his problems. He'd run from his bullies to a new school, he'd run from having to deal with the fact his father couldn't deal with him by boarding at that new school. And that had been that.

Kurt couldn't run. He had to face his problems head on. He'd lost a sister, a mother, and now... now his dad wasn't looking good. Blaine had never witnessed anything more heartbreaking than the way Kurt had broken down in the hospital. He hadn't known what to do, so he'd just held the trembling boy tightly.

He couldn't help but compare that Kurt to the Kurt he'd met only a little over a week ago. They were two different people. The way that Kurt had had such a peace when he held Beth, when he took care of her. His eyes weren't drained and hollow then. They almost sparkled with love and adoration, the only thing holding it back, it seemed, was sorrow, it was hidden, but it was there. Blaine realised now, it must have been because of his sister, and that made his heart break for Kurt.

So, somehow, lingering on those thoughts all day, he'd found himself driving back out to Lima for the third time that week. As soon as school had ended, he'd found himself in his car, heading back to his aunt's place. He had an idea, a thought, as to how he might be able to make Kurt feel a little better, even if only for a fleeting moment.

When Shelby answered the door she looked surprised.

"Blaine? What are you doing here?"

He shrugged. "Can I come in?"

"Of course you can."

It was about five in the afternoon, he followed Shelby into the living room. Beth was on a blanket (decorated with various cartoon animals and clouds and rainbows) in the middle of the room, lying on her stomach surrounded by toys. She was happily sucking on the foot of a toy bear, drooling all over it. Blaine smiled when he saw the sight, her wide sea coloured eyes looked up at him, and followed him as he walked into the room. Once he sat himself down on the couch she lost interest and went back to trying to eat the bear.

Shelby went to get them drinks, when she came back with a glass of water for him she sat down and muted the television. A look of concern crossed her face.

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine."

"But you just... are you sure? Because the last time you showed up here unannounced you had one hell of a shiner, and while I can't _see_anything wrong… I just want to make sure."

Blaine winced, not fond of that memory at all.

"I just... I worry about you enough as it is." Shelby continued.

"I went and saw Kurt yesterday." he cut in quickly. "At the hospital."

"Oh." her voice was a mix of sympathy and interest.

"Yeah... I haven't been able to stop thinking all day about how much it sucks that he's had to go through so much awful stuff."

"I know. My heart breaks for him too."

"And so... I've been thinking..." this was it, the reason he'd come. "Maybe we could bring Beth to him, because he hasn't seen her this week and I know... I know that Beth reminds him of some incredibly sad things. But I also know she makes him happy for the same reasons And I think it might be good..." he trailed off at the look he was getting from Shelby. "What?"

"That's not a good idea."

"Is it taking Beth into a hospital? Because the ward Kurt's dad is in will be fine, there's no one contagious there."

"Blaine…" Shelby sighed. "What do you know about Kurt and Beth? Please, tell me everything he's told you."

Blaine shrugged. "He baby sits once a week and… Beth kind of reminds him of his little sister who passed away. But, I really think he might feel better if we take her to him."

Shelby rubbed her fingers along her forehead and turned her gaze to Beth (who had moved onto trying to devour a stuffed toy rabbit ear).

"Alright, we'll go. But only for half an hour, and I still don't think it's a great idea, but I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt. If Kurt asks us to leave right away, we'll go, no questions asked. Okay?"

**X X X**

Kurt was, again, by himself in the hospital room. He should go home, he knew that. He hadn't gotten more than a couple of hours sleep all week, and he felt exhausted. Carol had been cooking casseroles, and pasta bakes and putting them in the fridge for him during the day, but he hadn't been able to bring himself to eat anything.

Instead, he was in the same uncomfortable plastic chair, watching his dad hoping that maybe something, _anything_ would change.

It never did.

There was a knock on the door, and he looked up in surprise. No one had said they were visiting, and the nurses didn't knock. They just walked right on it.

He didn't know whether to laugh, cry, or shout when he saw Blaine standing the door, again, this time accompanied by Shelby and Beth.

Oh God. They'd brought Beth.

Why?

"What… what are you doing here?"

Blaine grinned a grin that took up his whole face, his eyes lit up, sparkling and it beamed from him.

"I thought we'd bring a special visitor for you. To maybe, cheer you up a bit."

The colour remaining in Kurt's face quickly drained and Blaine's smile faltered.

"Is that… not ok? I just thought…"

"Blaine," Shelby put a hand on his shoulder. "Kurt, we won't stay if you don't want us to."

He was going to say he didn't want them to. The words were on the tip of tongue. And then Beth twisted in Shelby's arms and looked at him.

She may have only been four months old, but the baby girl was expressive. Kurt knew that, and Kurt could see that she recognised him, because a small, gummy smile appeared on her face and she wriggled around in Shelby's arms (who had to quickly clutch onto her with two arms), the words 'you should leave' disappeared as he looked into Beth's bright blue eyes.

"No, it's ok. You can stay." He managed. He forced himself to look away from the baby girl and to Blaine, his heart melted a little more at the joy that spread across Blaine's face. The boy glanced to his aunt with a knowing look, and she shrugged back. Kurt approached the two of them. "Can I?" He asked gesturing to Beth.

Without a word, she passed the girl to him.

The weight of Beth was so familiar, so comforting. She grabbed at his shirt, trying to suck on a button, getting drool and slobber all over it, and he didn't care. He couldn't. When he held her… things just fit. Simultaneously he felt like he could never be happier, and never be sadder at the same time. Today though, the heaviness that he always felt when holding her was stronger than ever.

Beth had _never_ been in the same room as his father. His father who… who knew _nothing_ about the baby girl that was, technically, his granddaughter. He was in a room with two of the people he loved the most, and one of them he could never know properly, the other… had days that were possibly numbered.

He didn't realise he was crying until there was a hand on his shoulder and Shelby was looking at him with concern.

"Kurt, if it's too much… we can leave."

He shook his head firmly, shifted Beth to one arm and wiped at his face with the other.

"No. It's ok." He moved and sat back down in the same seat. "You guys can sit down if you want. I'd offer you food, but… hospitals aren't known for their catering." He let out a short laugh. He settled Beth down in his lap, keeping a firm grip on her as she wriggled around, occasionally making a random gargle, or squeal, or just something ridiculously cute that made his heart ache just that little bit more. "She's growing so fast." He commented.

"Oh, I know." Shelby said. "I'm worried I'll blink and suddenly she'll be a teenager."

Kurt laughed. "I don't envy you having that job."

"And why's that?" Shelby raised her eyebrows.

"Just… if she's going to be anything like either of her parents she's going to be a handful."

"Wait," Blaine sat forward in his chair frowning. "You know her parents?"

There was silence.

"I assume." Kurt said. "I… I just… I assume that would be the case because… teenagers, you know?"

"Yeah," Shelby let out a nervous laugh. "Teenagers."

Blaine gave them suspicious looks, but didn't press the topic any further.

**X X X**

It was finally Friday, the end of the longest week of his life. Kurt walked through the school halls feeling empty. Getting shoved into lockers didn't even make him angry anymore. In fact, when he hadn't retaliated verbally like he usually did an odd look had crossed Karofsky's face. Since then, the shoves hadn't been as hard.

He was on his way to the cafeteria. Not that he felt like eating, he hadn't all week, but he wanted to prove to Mercedes that he was alright, and he was dealing. She'd been on his case lately, trying to convince him to go to church with her… church of all places, and he thought… maybe if she thought he was okay, she'd stop asking him about it.

Someone grabbed him and pulled him into the choir room. He seized up, excepting it to be Karofsky and Azimio, ready to torment him, yet again. But when he came face to face with Quinn Fabray he knew what was coming was much worse than anything they could do. He tried to escape, but she was quick and blocked the doorway.

"What is wrong with you?" she demanded, her eyes narrowed at him.

"What?"

"I know." She said. "Rachel told me all about it."

He found himself rolling his eyes. "What on earth would Rachel talk to you about that has to do with me?"

Quinn folded arm arms across her body. "I don't know... maybe about how she saw you last night with her mother and..." she trailed off. Kurt folded his arms over his chest. She knew… she knew and he had no way to cover this. If Kurt were honest, he'd rather face Karofksy and Azimio armed with a dozen slushies each than Quinn when she was angry. Couldn't Rachel keep something to herself for once? If she had been there, and seen them… she should have approached him first. Not gone to Quinn.

"And who, Quinn?" He asked, he was trying to not let her see he was a little bit frightened of the verbal lashing she might be about to give him, and came off as angry. "Who else did she see me with?"

Quinn looked away from Kurt and stared blankly at something behind him.

"Her. She saw you with _her_."

"I believe the person you're talking about has a name."

"Beth. Okay?" Her voice caught on the name. "She saw you with Beth!"

"Oh," Kurt feigned surprise. "So you _do _remember you had a child last year."

"Don't Kurt... don't you dare."

"Don't what? Talk about the fact that you... no, _we _had a baby? Because that happened Quinn. Don't you remember?"

"Of course I remember." She glared at him. "You think I can forget when every time I look in the mirror all I can see are stretch marks, when I go the sleep and all I can dream about is holding her one last time? You want to know why I don't talk about it? It's because I can't. Because it's too painful and I'd rather forget. And then I find out you're being all cuddly with her and seeing her, holding her, all those things I can't do and how do you think it makes me feel? Do you know how hard it was to try and give Rachel some sort of explanation as to _why _her mother was visiting your father in hospital?"

"Stop thinking about yourself for one goddamn minute!" He yelled, his arms fell to his sides.

Quinn flinched slightly, but didn't say anything.

"How do you think _I_ feel? I had to watch from a distance while you went through everything. Mr Schue, and Puck saw a Sonogram before I did, and the _only_ reason I did was because I found it in your locker, when I was trying to help you by giving you money for the bills."

"That was you?" she said quietly.

"Yes, it was. Every feeling and emotion you went through about having a child I went through completely alone because I couldn't tell a goddamn person about it. Do you think it's any easier now? Being so close, but so far from her? Maybe it's masochistic of me to be doing what I'm doing, I don't know, I don't care. But Beth is most likely the _only _biological child I'll ever have and if this is the closest I can ever get to her... then that's that."

"You've seen her before last night." Quinn's voice cracked slightly.

Kurt nodded, seeing no use in lying to her. "I've been baby sitting once a week since mid July."

Quinn looked like she was holding back a flood of emotions. Kurt didn't push her, he didn't want to and he could see she didn't want to be pushed. Finally, she met his eyes.

"What's she like?" she asked finally, her voice soft, barely above a whisper.

Kurt smiled softly, he couldn't help it as he thought about Beth's bright eyes, the way she giggled when he tickled her... the way his voice could calm her down, like somehow instinctively, she knew who he was. "Amazing. She's... amazing and beautiful and... I love her so much."

"So do I." Quinn said. "Please don't ever think I don't love her just because I can't see her."

"I know you do."

"I really wish I could." Suddenly she took several steps forward and wrapped her arms around Kurt clutching at him tightly. She was shaking and he didn't know what to do so he just held her. He could feel hot tears seeping through his shirt but he didn't say anything.

He didn't know how long they were there for, but lunch soon ended and they had to go to class. Quinn wiped at her face and murmured an apology and something about freshening up before quickly bolting from the room. Kurt remained there dumfounded at what had just happened. It was only then that he noticed the tears on his own face. He pulled out a mirror and made sure he looked presentable before heading to class.

* * *

**A/N: There's lots of crying in this fic… **


	7. Burt

**A/N: First time I've ever gotten teary while writing something. I didn't want this chapter to be super emotional. But then… it was sort of writing itself. Parts of this, certain… reactions were really hard to write so I hope they're reasonably in character.**

**Disclaimer: Glee obviously isn't mine, just want to clarify that in this chapter there is dialogue taken straight from the show. It's not mine, I didn't write it.**

* * *

Somehow it had become a regular thing for Blaine to go and visit his aunt on a Tuesday evening after Warblers practice, despite the hour and a half drive. He was glad for it. It gave him a break from the chaos that was Dalton Academy for boys and he got to see Shelby and Beth.

Kurt had nothing to do with it.

Though, the chance of seeing the boy with the ocean coloured eyes wasn't a negative. He considered Kurt a friend these days.

That was why he was completely comfortable sitting in his aunt's house while she was at the theatre class she taught weekly, on the couch next to the boy. Warblers practice had been cut short because half the members had an intense exam the next day and wanted to study. Blaine, had been in the half who didn't currently take algebra and didn't have to study. So he went to Shelby's early, hoping that Kurt wouldn't mind. He didn't seem to.

Kurt had Beth cradled in his arms as he fed her formula from a bottle. She sucked away at it, content and happy. Blaine tried to keep his focus on the Project Runway re-run Kurt had put on, but his eyes keep going back to the sight of his adopted cousin in Kurt's arms.

For some reason it simultaneously made his heart flip over, and unnerved him because of how natural the sight looked. It was obvious Kurt was completely comfortable around Beth, and had been for a long time. There was something so paternal about the way he interacted with her that Blaine felt almost addicted to the sight and he didn't know why. It sometimes put weird images in his head of him and… not Kurt necessarily, but sometimes… a family.

"How's your dad?" he asked finally as the ad break came on, hoping for a distraction from the thoughts he was having.

Kurt tore his eyes away from Beth (he wasn't even watching the show) and looked at Blaine. "What?"

"Your dad? How is he? Back on his feet yet?"

"Oh... yes. Slowly but surely," a smile crossed Kurt's face. "The doctors say he'll be fine as long as keeps a healthy diet. He complains a lot about the food having no flavour. But, a price must be paid for good health right?"

"Right. I'm glad to hear that Kurt."

Kurt was going to say more, ask Blaine something about his life, because despite having quite literally collapsed into tears in the boy's arms, he knew relatively little. But at that moment Beth squirmed, basically wrenching herself away from the bottle and started whimpering and he was distracted. He put the bottle on the coffee table in from of him.

"Full are you?" he asked rhetorically. There was one thing Kurt didn't do, and that was baby talk. He never had, and he never would. He drew a very strict line at it. Oh, sure, he knew his voice grew softer and gentler every time he spoke to Beth. How could it not? Just looking at her both broke him and made him complete at the same time and he spoke to her like he handled her, delicately, like she could break at any moment. But he didn't start babbling nonsense in the ridiculous voice the world, God knows why, had deemed appropriate for talking to infants in.

"Well, all right then," he kissed both her cheeks and grabbed the towel he had sitting ready, placing it on his shoulder before propping Beth up. He hadn't the first time he'd ever fed her and he still mourned the Marc Jacobs jacket that was unwearable (for him, anyway, apparently 'Adkzs2356' from ebay had no qualms about paying two hundred dollars for the worn item). Of course, he no longer wore his very best to Shelby's. But still, caution was taken. He started rubbing her back gently.

"What are you doing?"

Kurt was brought out of his little world, remembering that Blaine was there and startled a little.

"Burping her." He said.

"Oh."

As Blaine seemed to contemplate that (or maybe he was genuinely interested in the dress made out of patty pans) Kurt started to dwell on something he'd wanted to ask Blaine for a few days. But it wasn't something to have been done over texts and he'd felt like calling would have jut been weird, and awkward.

"Hey, um, can I ask you..."

"Yeah?" Blaine quickly turned away from the TV to face him (maybe he didn't find the challenge that interesting after all).

"This is, well, it might be a bit personal. I don't know. But I was wondering about..." he stopped.

"About what? Kurt, you can ask me anything." He gave a reassuring smile.

"A couple of weeks ago you were talking about a, well, a 'misguided' crush you'd had."

"Oh..." his cheeks coloured red. "Jeff, yeah."

"Yeah, I was wondering... how did you know it was misguided?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well… you thought he was gay right?"

"Uh… yeah?"

Kurt could feel himself going red. This conversation wasn't going the way he'd planned it at all. "How did you find out he wasn't."

"Oh." Comprehension dawned on Blaine's face. "He told me he was straight. Actually, I believe his exact words were 'well, I have a girlfriend. But, if I swung that way, I think I'd definitely have a crush on you'. Why do you ask?"

"There's… a new kid at school." Kurt confessed

"Oh?" Blaine twisted to look at the boy more directly. He was actually blushing and staring at his lap, avoiding looking at Blaine.

"He walked into the choir room and… I swear that he is, but… this is stupid. I'm sorry, I don't even know why I brought it up."

"Kurt, it's ok." Blaine said forcing a laugh, he wasn't sure why Kurt talking about another guy made him feel… jealous? It was ridiculous, he had no reason to feel that way. "We can talk about this stuff you know?"

"Really?"

"Of course."

"Oh, ok." He felt relieved. "Well, I'm just going to go put Beth to bed and then can we? If it's alright."

Blaine gave him a smile and watched as Kurt stood up, keeping a firm grip on Beth.

"Wait." he said, standing up as well.

Kurt turned to him with an expectant look.

"Uh... can I...? Say goodnight? To her." he asked.

"Oh. Um, ok, sure."

Blaine took Beth from Kurt's arms. He was very quickly getting more comfortable. She looked up at him with her bright eyes. Funny, they looked a little more blue than usual. But he could still see hints of green in them. He smiled when her fist grabbed his finger and held on tightly.

"You, my darling cousin, are beautiful. You'll be breaking boys hearts all over the place one day. I love you." he placed a gentle kiss on her forehead and looked up to see Kurt staring at the two of them with an expression he couldn't decipher.

"Are you all right Kurt?" he asked.

He blinked and quickly nodded. "I'm fine." he said as Blaine handed Beth back.

Blaine wasn't a hundred per cent certain he didn't imagine the waver in Kurt's voice, and for that reason Blaine didn't follow him into the bedroom, didn't watch him put her down for the night. He just mulled over his own thoughts because he couldn't help but wonder… why was it, exactly, that Kurt seemed so attached to Beth?

Kurt returned just as the winner of the Project Runway challenge was announced, there was a smile on his face and he sat down on the couch next to Blaine. They were nearly touching.

"So, this guy…" Blaine prompted.

"He doesn't seem to be gay... but the hair..."

"The hair?"

"Straight out of a bottle blonde. I mean, there's lightened by the sun, and then there's… his sort of blonde."

"Right."

"Yeah, so I asked him to duet with me, because that's our assignment this week and-

"What?" Blaine's eyes went wide. "Oh..." He flushed red. "Right... duet."

"Yes." Kurt gave him a suspicious look. "What did you think I said?"

"Nothing. Never mind, carry on." He said quickly, trying to hide his blush, because at that mishearing he'd suddenly had mental images of Kurt and... Kurt wasn't even his type (he kept telling himself) he shouldn't be picturing those things.

"Right... anyway, he actually agreed. But now Finn's all onto it, and telling me not to and from what I can gather Sam doesn't have a problem with it. So I can't help but think that maybe..."

"Why doesn't Finn want you to sing with him?"

"Because he's homophobic."

"But I thought... isn't he ok with it?"

Kurt was startled that Blaine seemed to know so much about his life. He knew he rambled, a lot, but he'd never realised Blaine was actually listening when he did. It was... a strange feeling. Not even Mercedes always paid that close attention.

"Oh, he's ok with _me_being gay. He just has issues with me acting on it." He said. "But anyway, I probably won't do it. Sam can sing with a girl, and win the competition and I'll continue to be alone."

"Well," Blaine patted Kurt's knee. "We can be alone together and complain about why all the good looking guys are straight."

"They always are…"

"And if Sam does turn out to be gay?" Blaine couldn't help but ask.

Kurt let a small smile grace his face. "Then I'll just hope I'm his type."

"And what about me?" Blaine pouted.

"You can live vicariously through me. But there's no way I'd introduce the two of you."

"Why? Are you ashamed of me?"

"No. Because one look at you, and he'd leave me without a second look."

Yeah, right. As if anyone would leave Kurt for him.

And woah... really, where did that thought come from? He didn't like Kurt... even if he had just inadvertently said he found him attractive. His heart only skipped the way it did because no guy had ever said something like that before (no guy that counted anyway). He tried to shake it off by laughing.

"They'd be stupid to." He said, without thinking. He watched as Kurt's face glowed a bright red.

Kurt cleared his throat. "Anyway, my dad's doing much, much better."

**x x x **

"So, how's school?"

Kurt sighed and shrugged. "It's fine, I guess."

His dad gave him a look and Kurt knew his dad could tell something was bothering him.

"There's this new kid, Sam, in Glee club. He and I are singing a duet together." He honestly had no idea why he'd decided to start telling his dad all of this. Maybe it was just… it wasn't that long ago that Kurt had been faced with the idea of never talking to his dad again, so now he was spilling all this… stuff that he didn't need to. He had Blaine to talk to now right?

"Is that a problem?" Burt took another sip of soup and winced at the bland flavour.

"Finn practically begged me not to. He said it'd ruin Sam's reputation." And yeah, he was still bitter about it. Why did Finn care so much about Sam's reputation anyway?

"This kid Sam, is he… you know, play for you team?"

Kurt shrugged again, thinking back to the conversation he'd had with Blaine earlier. It hadn't been overly helpful in figuring anything out, but it had been nice… to know there was someone that actually understood him. Because people like Finn certainly didn't, and didn't even seem to be bothered to try.

"That is yet to be determined."

"Maybe Finn has a point."

Kurt blanched, there was no way… no, his dad wasn't… "You're siding with him? After what he called me in our basement?" It was a low blow, he knew that, but he couldn't help it.

"I was talking to Carole and… apparently, you weren't totally honest with me. She told me you had a crush on Finn and you weren't afraid to show it."

Kurt didn't want to be having this conversation. Not at all. Especially not with his dad.

"Is this true?" Burt asked.

Kurt stood up. "So a gay guy can't be friendly to a straight guy without it being predatory?" he knew what he was saying was ridiculous, but he couldn't help it. He grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge.

"You gotta understand, some guys don't know how to deal with… unwanted advances."

"Right, so you're saying I shouldn't sing with him just because it might upset a couple of homophobes? I thought _you_ said no one pushes the Hummel's around."

Burt sighed. "No. I'm not saying that, I'm… I'm saying that maybe you're the one pushing this Sam kid around because you're interested in him."

Kurt knew, if his dad knew just was it was like to be him… he wouldn't be saying that stuff. Blaine certainly hadn't. Blaine had just let him talk, had been a little sympathetic and almost implied a shoulder to cry on, and if anyone could relate… it was him.

"You have no idea what's it's like to be the only gay kid in school… in this town. I mean, why can't I walk hand in hand down the hall with a person that I like? Why can't I slow dance at my prom?"

"Come here."

Kurt sighed and sat down next to his father. He tried not be too aware of just how much his Dad still wasn't quite looking like himself, he was still very pale, and had dark circles under eyes. The man seemed so fragile and it was weird for him, because his dad had always been the tough, strong one, in personality and stature.

"You think I don't want those things for you?" He asked. "You know, until you find somebody that's as open and as brave as you, you're just going to have to get used to going it alone."

"That's not... I mean, there's Blaine... and he's out, and confident about it."

"Oh?" Burt stiffened, and looked Kurt straight on. "Who's Blaine?"

Wow, had he really not told his dad about Blaine at all? "He's uh... he's Shelby Corcoran's nephew, he visits her occasionally. He actually, um, he came by while you were in hospital."

"How old is this kid?"

"He's my age, I think. He's in high school at any rate." He was starting to realise how little he knew about the Dalton student, either he was hopeless at paying attention (which was probably the case, particularly with Beth around) or Blaine didn't talk about himself much at all. "We've only spoken a couple of times."

"Right." Burt seemed to contemplate this. "And you two... is there... anything I should know about here?"

"No." Kurt said firmly. "Definitely not. I mean, it's not that he's not... because he is." Kurt blushed... yeah, the fact that Blaine was really, _really _attractive wasn't something his dad needed to know. "But he... he's Shelby's nephew."

"What's that got to do with anything?" Burt asked, a curious look crossed his face.

"Nothing." Kurt said quickly, his heart was pounding and he didn't know why. "Just that, that makes him Rachel's cousin and I'm fairly certain they don't know about each other and that would... complicate things." He lowered his gaze. Was he really going to do this? Hide the truth from his father forever? It wasn't like he hadn't tried to tell his dad. There were several times when he'd had every intention of doing so. But then Burt would say something like, how proud he was of him. Or how, at least he didn't have to worry about Kurt getting a girl pregnant (when the whole saga was actually happening, and there had never been a time where he'd felt more guilty). There had been moments where he'd been so stressed about the idea of telling his dad hat he'd been sick. Literally. He had spent weeks crying himself to sleep because he just couldn't deal with it, he didn't want to deal with it. He kept hoping he'd wake up one day and the whole situation would disappear. But he'd get to school, see Quinn waddling down the corridor and it would hit him all over again.

There was going to be a child out there, in the world, that was _his_. That he... he had a part to do with. And he was never going to get to know them. Quinn had made that much clear. Despite her being the pregnant ex-cheerleader, she still valued her reputation above anything. And apparently, it was better for people to think she got pregnant by cheating on her boyfriend with his best friend, than by sleeping with the gay freak. He didn't even bother pretending it didn't hurt.

He still didn't know how that had come about. He was sure she'd stick with the Finn story, the lame one, about a hot tub. He had been shocked people believed it at all. But then all of a sudden, Mercedes was gossiping with him about how Puck told her he was the father and on the outside he was pretending to be just as shocked and scandalised as anyone else when really he felt the urge to punch Noah Puckerman, because really, what the hell? Where did he get off telling people he was Quinn's baby daddy? He'd confronted Quinn, but all she'd said was that it was none of his business and to get out of her face.

"What are you hiding from me?" Burt asked, frowning at Kurt curiously.

"What?"

"Kurt..."

"I..." His dad was too fragile to be told now. He should just come up with another lie ('Are you sick?' 'I think I should stop eating anything from the cafeteria, even the salad.' 'Have you been crying?' 'I think I got moisturiser in my eyes and they're irritated.') it wasn't like he hadn't had the practice.

If Kurt was honest with himself, he'd been terrified of coming out to his dad. His dad was a man's man, tough and football and junk food and cars. All of that stuff. He was basically a stereotype of the sort of men in the world that had an issue with homosexuals, and though his dad had never said anything to indicate he was one of them... Kurt hadn't been sure. So yeah, he'd been terrified. But he'd also known... if his dad rejected him for who he was then, well, that was that. There was nothing Kurt could do about that. It would tear him apart, yes, but it wasn't like he could help it.

To tell his dad... to tell him he got Quinn Fabray pregnant, and child he was babysitting was actually his daughter... the fear was a hundred fold. He _knew_his dad would be angry. In fact, angry wouldn't even cover it. He'd be so beyond furious. And he knew now that Burt would never, ever kick him out of the house, but if it ruined the relationship they had, if Burt started treating him differently because of something he could have prevented...

It would break him.

But he wasn't sure he could keep hiding it from his dad any longer.

"Dad, you know how I baby sit Beth, every Tuesday night?"

"Yeah?"

It was now or never. He didn't say anything now, he'd probably convince himself he could get through the rest of his life saying nothing.

"Did you ever wonder how... how I got that job?"

Burt shrugged. "I thought you said Rachel told you about it, and you needed the cash. What are you getting at?"

Kurt took a shaky breath. He wouldn't cry. Not now. "If I wanted the cash I would have asked to work in the shop." He said, he could hear the slight shake in his voice, and he knew his dad could too. He stared at his lap, not willing to make eye contact. "And Rachel and Shelby decided... they decided it would be better if they didn't... well, they don't exactly have a relationship."

"Ok..."

"I'm baby sitting Beth because I asked to, and for some reason, Shelby let me. I'm baby-sitting her because I want, no, I _need_to be a part of her life somehow. No matter how small and insignificant. I'm only ever going to watch her from afar and that... I've come to realise that that's better than nothing."

"Kurt, you're not making any sense."

"I need..." He could feel tears slipping down his face and cursed them. He didn't want to cry. "I need it because..."

He needed to just get it over with.

"Dad..." His voice cracked and shook with emotion. "She's my daughter."

He was met with silence, loud and deafening. It went on forever. Kurt wasn't sure whether it was a few seconds, or minutes before he said something.

"Please say something."

"You're gay."

Kurt blinked. He hadn't been expecting that. But then Burt continued.

"You... you couldn't have gotten a girl pregnant."

"Sexuality and fertility aren't related."

Burt was silent again. Kurt lifted his head, his father was looking at him with no clear emotion and he didn't know what to make of it.

"I..."

"You must have known for at least months, you've been babysitting for months."

Kurt couldn't bring himself to say anything.

"I can't... I don't know what to say to you right now Kurt. I'm extremely disappointed. You're sure that…"

The word was a bullet. There was nothing worse than hearing 'I'm disappointed' anger, he could deal with, rejection, he could deal with. But disappointment stung, it stung so much and Kurt gave up on trying not to cry.

"I'm sorry. I'm so, _so_sorry."

Burt was silent.

"I tried to tell you. So many times, I tried. But I couldn't. I was just so scared. I'm so sorry Dad. I'm sorry."

Burt didn't reach out to him, though Kurt desperately wished he would. He didn't bother to try and stop crying. He thought he'd run out of tears for this, for himself, for Beth... for Quinn. But apparently not, and the fact that his dad just sat there, stony faced with disappointment in his eyes made it worse and he couldn't deal with it.

"Does Finn know?"

Kurt shook his head. "No one knows. No one but myself, Quinn, Shelby and now you. Everyone else believes she's Puck's."

"Right." Burt sat forward, holding his head in his hands and breathed heavily. Kurt just watched, waiting for him to do or say something. His tears had stopped and he was feeling a little calmer. It was... a relief to have the weight of the secret off his back. But he felt vulnerable without it, more exposed. He just wished his dad would hug him, or something, and tell him he still loved him, that it would be all right. "I have a granddaughter."

Kurt nodded

"My son... is a... I can't even say it. I'm never going to meet her am I?"

"Probably not."

"I wish you'd told me when you found out."

"I wanted to. I really did." Kurt bit his lip. "Dad, please don't tell Carole, or Finn. Especially not Finn."

Burt looked at him steadily. "I think it would be better for this information to be out in the open. But for now, I will respect your wishes. Just realise though, Kurt, that these things have a way of getting out."

"If that ever happens, I'll deal with it then." He paused. "You're not mad?"

"I'm upset." Burt told him honestly. "And disappointed that this has happened at all. But... nothing can change the situation now. I'm also shocked that you... you of all people... and I really do wish you'd told me a long time ago, you shouldn't have had to go through that alone. But I'm not mad. You're grounded though. Oh believe me, you're grounded for not telling me something like this. You really should have. You can still baby sit on Tuesdays, but otherwise, it's straight home from school, or after Glee practice, no TV and no internet except for anything school related for a month. And... I want to at least see a photo."

Kurt nodded. That was actually better than what he'd expected.

"I feel so much better having told you."

"This... Blaine kid... does he know?"

"No. He's not going to ever find out." Kurt stood up. "I have to... to start my moisturising routine."

"Kurt."

He turned around. "I love you, son."

Kurt walked back to the couch where his dad was sitting and hugged him, burying his face in his shoulder, the relief he felt when his father's arm was wrapped tightly around him was overwhelming. He gave a muffled, "Love you too, Dad."


	8. Warblers

**A/N: Firstly, **_**wow,**_** thank you so much for the response for the last chapter. It pretty much completely blew me away. Honestly, I have no words. You were all **_**so**_** lovely. **

**Secondly, this chapter ended up getting broken up into two parts, because it was getting so long, that why it kind of stops at a weird place. I only broke it up because I'd like to keep chapter length as consistent as possible, rather than randomly having this like, 10,000 word chapter right in the middle. I hope you enjoy it though.**

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"Dad?" Kurt hesitantly approached the living room, where his dad was seated on the couch, feet propped up on the coffee table, watching a recap of a recent football game.

"Hey Kurt, what's up?"

"Um," Kurt bit his lip and moved closer, taking up the seat next to his dad. "Last week you said… you said you wanted to see a photo."

"Oh, right, yeah."

The subject had been avoided since their conversation. In some ways, Kurt felt so much more relaxed now that his Dad knew, it was like a whole weight had been lifted off his shoulders. But he hadn't been ready to bring it up again, and he guessed, neither had his dad.

Now, Kurt fumbled with his phone awkwardly as Burt tore his attention away from the screen and to his son. Kurt quickly brought up one of the several photos' he'd taken. It was a close up, she was sitting in her high chair, with a bright, toothless smile. Kurt's heart constricted at the photo… he would be keeping it forever.

"Here." He held the screen up for his dad to see.

Burt took to phone off Kurt gently, and Kurt watched him. The curiosity on his face quickly melted into a warm, loving expression. An ever so faint smile appeared and… Kurt wasn't sure if his dad's eyes were shining with tears or not.

He didn't say anything for a long time.

"There are other photo's."

"Oh?"

Kurt quickly showed his dad how to swipe across the screen to see the others.

"Kurt, she… she's beautiful."

"I know."

"She has your eyes too."

He nodded. "Yeah."

"Kurt," Burt looked away from the phone to look at his son. "There's been… a couple of questions that have been on my mind lately."

"Ok." He tried to not look worried, but he was.

"It was that Quinn girl that was… that was pregnant right?"

"Yes."

"I'm just really curious as to, well, _how_. And don't go _there_, son. I just mean, it seems highly unlikely that you would get her pregnant."

Kurt took a deep shaky breath. He knew that if it had ever gotten out at school, that would have been the only question they ever got asked. _How_?

Kurt, the boy who wore sweaters actually designed for women, but knew that some fashion knew no gender and Quinn, head cheerleader, and for a time, Sue Sylvester's mini-me. How was it that they ended up with her carrying his child? They didn't even speak to each other. That anyone knew of.

"Dad." He said. "It's not that I don't want to tell you, I do. And I will, in the near future. Just… not tonight. Please."

Burt nodded. "One day though." He said, accompanied with a look that suggested that if Kurt didn't bring it up at some point in the future, he would.

"Yes."

Burt handed him his phone back. "I mean it Kurt, she _is_ beautiful."

Kurt smiled softly. "There's no one in the world that compares to her."

**x x x**

It was reaching the point where Blaine was getting to his Aunt's house in record time. A couple of laws may or may not have been broken in the process but, really, who needed to know that?

Definitely not Wes, (or David, because Wes had brought him in on the case) who had continued to tease and harrass him about Kurt, because he, or may not, have mentioned him a couple of times in conversation and now Wes, apparently, was convinced that they were destined to be together. During practise Wes kept commenting about how Blaine should serenade Kurt with Teenage Dream. Blaine would just blush and tell him where he could put his gavel.

It was twenty to seven when he knocked on the door, and the sight that greeted him wasn't… well, wasn't what he'd been expecting at all.

Kurt looked…

Dishevelled.

Blaine's breath caught for a moment.

His hair wasn't perfectly coiffed, held solidly in place with hairspray like it usually was. In fact, it stuck up at all angles, it didn't look deliberately messy though, it looked more like… bed hair kind of messy, or like someone had been frantically running their fingers through it. His clothes weren't any sort of a fashion statement. He was wearingtight black jeans and a plain white shirt. And his face looked… was Kurt wearing make up? There were grey smudges around his eyes, and traces of powder in his eyebrows.

"Oh, hey." Kurt greeted him, looking completely unenthusiastic. "I didn't think you'd be here so early."

"Got a good run of traffic." Blaine said, his hands hung limply at his sides and suddenly he was unsure of himself. Did Kurt not want him here?

"Right. Uh, come on in I suppose."

"Did I interrupt something?"

"Oh, no." Kurt waved his hand as he walked through the house. Blaine followed him curiously, until they ended up in the bathroom. Kurt stopped and turned around. "Really? You're going to follow me in here?"

"Uh… no." He knew he was red. "I'll go out to the living room."

Then Kurt smirked. Actually smirked.

"It's ok, I'm actually just trying to get this stupid make up off. I just wanted to see your reaction."

Blaine looked at Kurt curiously. There was something different about him. He seemed to be… lighter. If that was a thing. He was happier. Maybe… Sam had turned out to be gay. He didn't know why his heart sank at that, the last he had heard about the situation was Kurt messaged him saying he wasn't doing a duet with Sam anymore and the blonde boy was paired with some girl… head cheerleader or something, so he was on his way to extreme popularity. Was it possible something changed? It had been a little over a week since Kurt had brought up Sam in their casual text conversations.

"Oh, ok." He said. "Why are you wearing make up? Can I ask?"

"Oh…" Kurt grinned. "We're doing Rocky Horror."

"What? Where?"

"In Glee. I'm playing Riff Raff."

"Oh…" That explained the makeup, but… "Isn't that a little, um, risqué for high school students?" Gold shorts flashed into his mind.

"Well, yes. But we've changed the script… a lot, and Mr Schue seems pretty set on it. Maybe we'll end up doing the Time Warp for sectionals or something out of it." He scrubbed at his face. "I have no idea what Brittany put on my face, it's like cement. This isn't coming off."

"Here." Blaine took a fresh makeup remove wipe from the packet and turned Kurt around so he was facing him. Hesitantly he reached up and gently swiped across the skin just under his eyes where grey eye shadow was smudged. He'd be lying if he said his knuckle brushing along the skin was an accident. But yes, Kurt's skin was a soft as it looked. "You just have to be patient, it'll come off eventually. You don't want to rub your skin raw do you?"

Kurt let out a shaky breath. "Since when were you an expert?"

"I had to cover up a black eye once. My younger sister showed me the magic of heavy makeup."

Kurt gasped, and Blaine wasn't sure whether it was from the remark about the black eye, or because that time his hand did accidentally brush across his cheek. "Where did you get a black eye from?"

"School." He said with a shrug. Though, truthfully it had taken a long time for him to distance himself from what had happened at his previous school. "One of the bullies took it too far."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. Not for me. At least, my parents finally woke up to how bad the situation was and enrolled me into Dalton." He wiped at Kurt's eyelid one more time. "I think it's just about gone."

"Oh." Kurt opened his eyes and looked right at Blaine.

They were standing so close. Kurt's eyes were a light blue, but if he looked closely enough, he could see flecks of green. They were so unique… but he couldn't help but feel like he'd seen them before. He couldn't look away, and Kurt seemed just as hypnotised by him.

Slowly, he put the make up wipe on the counter, and brought his hand up again. He wanted to feel just how soft his skin was, one more time. As his fingertips gently brushed along Kurt's cheek, the boy sucked in a breath. Blaine could literally feel his skin grow hotter as a warm flush spread out over his cheeks. His hand moved down, curling around Kurt's neck and he stepped even closer.

He was about to close the gap completely, as he saw Kurt's eyes flutter close, and kiss him when Kurt suddenly jumped backwards.

"I can't. Sorry. I can't do this." He turned and walked out of the bathroom.

Blaine gripped the sink with his hands tightly.

"Dammit."

_When_ had he fallen for Kurt?

**x x x**

It was Monday when Kurt got a message from Blaine that simply read;

_See you at sectionals ;) -Blaine_

He frowned. He hadn't heard from Blaine at all since last Tuesday. Not since that particular… _incident. _He hadn't contacted Blaine out of not knowing what to say… if he should just pretend it never happened and carry on as usual. And, well, Blaine hadn't contacted him either, until now.

It was frustrating, because in that moment, on Tuesday, when Blaine was _so close_, leaning in, and his eyes had fluttered shut on their own accord, he'd _wanted_ to. So, so much. But he couldn't, and he hated that.

If circumstances were different, Kurt was sure he's be crushing on Blaine like there was no tomorrow. Blaine was cute, really cute, and he had these charming dapper ways that made Kurt's heart melt a little inside. Plus, there was the fact that Blaine was gay, available, and didn't seem to be at all afraid of being near, or touching Kurt. Not like other guys were. But Kurt kept his guard up with Blaine, because he couldn't go there.

He typed back a quick short message. He'd actually missed their usual little texting conversations they'd have sometimes.

_Huh?_

The response came much quicker than he'd expected.

_Competition just got announced. William McKinley New Directions, Dalton Academy Warblers and The Hipsters, from some school that lets the elderly get their GEDs. _

_Does this mean we're both officially __fraternising__ with the enemy?_

_I won't tell Wes if you won't tell Rachel_

Kurt had grinned at that. They'd both talked about their respective Glee clubs multiple times, he felt like he knew many of the members already as if they were his own friends (and was that a little creepy? Considering he'd never even met them?). Kurt had been halfway through a response when out of nowhere a hand reached out and shoved him roughly into the lockers. The clatter echoed through the hall and Kurt regained himself just in time to see Karofsky smirking at him.

He didn't have time to respond before Karofsky had stalked off. No one so much as batted an eyelid.

Kurt hated McKinley High. Oh sure there was Mercedes, and New Directions, and he loved them, really, they were family, but that was it.

The teachers were lousy, the curriculum severely flawed, the food was inedible and most of the students were awful.

How was it that now he was getting shoved into lockers constantly, before school, between classes, after school, before Glee, and having insults hurled at him and no one noticed? No one.

Not even his best friend could really see what was going on. Couldn't see that he was getting it worse than anyone else.

They just didn't care.

So when he walked into Glee that afternoon he was already in a bad mood. There were bruises on his back he could feel with every step, and he'd gotten a message from his dad reminding him that he had to be home straight after Glee was finished, no hanging around afterwards.

Trying to explain to Mercedes why he was grounded had been uncomfortable. He'd thought he'd reached a point where the lying could stop. But it seemed like never would. He supposed though, he brought it on himself.

"Wait, why did your dad ground you?" she'd asked.

"I wasn't truthful to him... about Finn and... last year." he honestly hadn't known what else to say. So now everyone thought he was grounded because he hadn't told his dad he had a crush on Finn last year. He didn't bother explaining to them why he wasn't bothered by it.

"Alright guys." Mr Schue clapped his hands together. "Sectionals is coming up and we have our competition. We're up against the The Hipsters, a first year club from the Warren Township continuing education program, they're a Glee club made up of elderly people getting their high school GED's."

"Is that even legal?" Rachel asked.

"And the all boys A Capella group, The Warbler's from Dalton Academy in Westerville."

"Ok, like a million awesome gay jokes just popped into my head." Santana joked.

Kurt rolled his eyes. The announcement of the competition was no surprise to him, obviously. But hearing it in Glee made his stomach churn a little.

His two worlds would be coming a little too close for comfort.

What if they realised he knew Blaine? And what if they asked how he knew him? Would he have an answer? What could he say?

_'Oh, yeah, you know how Quinn had a baby last year and gave it to Rachel's mom? Well, I'm the baby daddy and I've been baby sitting her and oh yeah, Blaine is her nephew. Rachel, meet your cousin.'_

... Like that would go down well.

Mr Schue was saying something about another boys vs girls competition and something about getting them excited for Sectionals. When it was time to split up he went to go with the girls.

"Kurt, I'm going to say it again, boys team."

Why did Mr Schue expect him to sing with the guys? For starters none of them liked him. Not that much anyway. They were polite to him, most of the time. But they didn't go out of their way to talk to him, they weren't going to listen to him, he was going to get stuck singing some awful song from an eighties rock band. He'd just rather go with the girls… where he'd actually be appreciated.

But no, he wasn't allowed to be on the girls' team. And even though, somehow, he'd managed to convince Mr Schue to switch up the sort of songs they were to sing, and he was the boys' best hope at winning, they'd still rather he went somewhere else, and did something else.

Which was how, after lunch on Tuesday, he'd somehow found himself skipping school and driving out to Westerville.

**x x x**

The bell rang, and students were quick to grab their things and pile out of the classrooms. They quickly filled the hall, when suddenly a voice broke through the loud chatter.

"Warbler's performance, senior commons. Right now!"

Blaine grinned as David shouted, _finally_ making the announcement he'd been waiting all day for. There were cheers from the other students as a new excitement suddenly buzzed in the air. Younger freshmen frantically texting each other, excited to finally get to see the much talked about Warbler's perform, older students chatting excitedly about what song they might be performing, discussing various rumours they'd heard.

He quickly joined the crowd heading to the senior common room. This was it. His moment. They were going to debut Teenage Dream, a song they'd been working on solidly for a couple of weeks now. They wanted to see the reaction it got and adjust the performance accordingly so it would be ready for sectionals. He was at the bottom of the stairs when a hand reached out and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Excuse me,"

He turned around and his mouth fell open.

"Kurt?"

The boy had obviously tried to emulate the uniform, but did so poorly. It was kind of cute, with his black trench style jacket, and red tie. The shorts paired with knee high boots however…

Oh, Blaine appreciated it all right (probably more than he should have), but… he knew Kurt had seen the Dalton uniform several times at least… he could have done a better job (but then, Kurt in grey slacks… yeah, Blaine couldn't picture it).

"Um, I'll just..." Kurt started to retreat up the stairs, his face red, a shocked expression still etched into his face a little, he slowly backed away from Blaine looking fearful. "I don't know what I was thinking."

"Wait," Blaine grabbed his hand. "Why don't you come and watch us? We're about to perform."

And oh, Wes was going to _kill_him for pretty much dragging 'the enemy' into a performance. But Blaine suddenly had a thought…

"Who's we?"

"The Warblers, silly." He flashed Kurt what he hoped was a charming smile. "Come on."

"Wait, Glee club is actually popular here?"

"Yeah." Blaine grinned enthusiastically. "We're like... rock stars."

He tugged on Kurt's hand and pulled him down the stairs, he tried to ignore the feeling that shot through him at the contact. He couldn't quite believe this. It was the _perfect_ opportunity to get Kurt to notice him… that way, and not just as 'Shelby's nephew'. The boy had just waltzed right on into his school. Which was… strange, and he'd have to ask Kurt about that properly later because security was fairly tight. Right now though, he just wanted to sing. They walked into the common room and Kurt glanced around.

"Oh, I stick out like a sore thumb."

"Don't forget your jacket next time, new kid." He gave Kurt a subtle wink and straightened the label of his coat, pulling it out from under the strap of the bag Kurt had slung over his shoulder.

Kurt gave him a confused look and Blaine stepped back to join the rest of the Warbler's, taking up his position at the front. They started their intro.

"_You think I'm pretty, without any make up on…" _

As Blaine performed Kurt watched in wonder. The way he moved was so effortless, and his voice… why had he never heard Blaine sing before? It was… there weren't words for what his voice was. It was in that moment, as Blaine sang, barely taking his eyes off him for a moment that Kurt realised… it was going to be _very_ hard to not fall for Blaine Anderson. That was, if he hadn't already.

His fingers were still tingling from when Blaine had grabbed his hand.

Kurt applauded enthusiastically and as the Warbler's crowded him, cheering their congratulations at such an awesome performance, Blaine couldn't tear his eyes away him. He was about to walk over when someone grabbed his wrist.

"Who's the kid you were staring at?" Blaine turned to look at Wes.

"Kurt." He said without thinking.

A grin slowly spread across Wes's face. "Kurt? Really? The boy you don't shut up about ever?"

"I mentioned him once, maybe twice."

"Ha! I _wish _that was all. What's he doing here? Is this all part of your grand scheme to woo him?"

"No." Blaine could feel himself blushing. "Who uses that word anyway? I don't know why he's here, actually. I was about to go and ask."

"Oh pick me! Let me come too! And David." Wes someone grabbed David and pulled him to stand next to him. "He needs to come too."

"_Guys_ you don't need to tag along. In fact, I'm _begging_ you not too."

"Blaine." David had his 'serious' face on. "Doesn't Kurt belong to the McKinley High, New Directions?"

"Well, yes, but…"

"Then we should come. If this was a matter of spying on the competition… your bias opinion, and by that I mean you gigantic crush on the guy, cannot get in the way."

"Plus, we really, _really_ want to meet Kurt. You definitely need our approval before you make him your boyfriend."

"I _don't_ want to make him my boyfriend! And I don't have a crush on him, at all." Blaine knew his blush gave his lie. "Now stay put, I'm going to go and talk to him."

Kurt was standing off to the side, by the door, looking like he was about to bolt at any minute. When Blaine approached him he jumped slightly.

"Are your friends mad?" He asked. "For me… spying?"

Blaine shook his head. "They're a little cautious of you, but they're more just eager to meet you."

"Oh." Kurt looked surprised. "Why?"

Blaine shrugged, pretending it was a mystery to him too. "I'm warning you though, they're a little insane."

"You haven't met my friends."

"Come on, coffee? Then we can talk about why you're here."


	9. Phones

**A/N: I would have updated earlier, but I knew I would be seeing the new episode later and didn't want to be accidentally spoiled if you guys mentioned anything in your reviews (Pure Imagination was **_**ah-maze-ing**_** btw). So I waited til I'd seen it. For the record, I do **_**not**_** under any circumstances condone speeding. It is extremely dangerous and you just shouldn't. **

**Super long a/n. Don't feel obliged to read it.**

**Also, I think this fic runs by the 'Dalton is a school run by teenagers so they never actually do anything but spontaneously burst into song' theory. This chapter is long. I originally planned for Never Been Kissed to take up one chapter, but now it's been two long chapters and will continue on a little in the next one as well, which I hope is alright, I'm trying to shape canon around this story, so I hope that parts that are pretty much out of the show don't drag on too much, I'm already aware that you guys know what happens, but I want you guys to see how it effects the characters under the settings in this fic. I've also just kind of made up my own timeline for when things happen to make things fit with the fact that Kurt baby sits on a Tuesday, so if some things seem a little out of place compared to what actually happens on the show, that's why. **

**Finally, thank you to everyone who had read/alerted/reviewed this fic. You guys honestly have **_**no idea**_** how utterly and completely grateful I am for it.**

* * *

Blaine wasn't sure how Kurt liked his coffee, so he went with a latte. It was a relatively safe option, he hoped. He glanced over to the table where the boy sat staring sullenly at his hands that rested delicately on the table. Seriously, why was Kurt visiting Dalton? That was the biggest puzzle of them all. Part of Blaine couldn't help but hope it was to see him. But the way the boy had looked ready to bolt upon first seeing him made him think otherwise, that he'd been spying on the Warblers. They were officially competition after all. It just… didn't seem much like Kurt. As they waited for their coffee order Wes nudged Blaine.

"He's not your usual type."

"Shut up."

"I'm serious though he's not, you're usually into a little scruffier and a little less poised. Yet you were totally making sex eyes at him through the whole performance."

"Ok, one, there's no such thing as sex eyes, please stop using that phrase it's kind of gross and two, I was not. Can we just leave this alone? I want to know why Kurt is here to begin with."

David snickered. "Blaine, you were totally trying to seduce him. Don't deny it."

Blaine flushed. "That is neither here nor there." he accepted the coffees, ignoring the sly looks Wes and David gave each other. "Now, can you two please try and act like civilised, normal human beings for once?"

"I offer no guarantee." Wes said.

Blaine sat down in front of Kurt, Wes and David took up a position either side of him. He placed the latte down in front of Kurt.

"I wasn't sure what you liked, so I got you a latte I hope that's alright. Oh and these two are Wes and David."

"Pleasure to meet you." Wes said enthusiastically, David nodded in agreement.

Kurt gave what Blaine assumed he thought was a smile, but it was more of a grimace.

"It's very civilised of you to buy me coffee before you beat me up."

Blaine frowned while Wes next to him snickered.

"We're not going to beat you up."

And really, didn't Kurt know him well enough yet? He considered them to be friends. Ok, maybe friends didn't try to kiss friends, but other than that... they got along. They had things in common. They texted semi-frequently and had each other on Facebook. Didn't that make them friends by some description? Yet here was Kurt, believing he'd beat him up for spying.

It really didn't say much about his plan to win Kurt over.

"You were such a terrible spy we thought it was endearing." David added.

"Blaine thinks you're endearing." Wes muttered next to him. Blaine glared at him.

"What?" Kurt looked confused.

"Nothing. Your spying attempt, it made me think... maybe that wasn't the reason you came all the way here." He so badly wanted to hear Kurt say something like 'I came to see you' and he could respond with some really romantic declaration of love and then they would kiss and…

"Can I ask you something?"

"Anything, you know that." he was aware of the looks Wes and David were giving each other behind his back, but ignored them.

"Are you... _all_ gay?"

Not what he expected.

He laughed, so did Wes and David. He couldn't help it. It was something the Warblers got all the time because they were an all male singing group in uniforms, so of _course_they had to be gay, right?

"No. You remember the story about," he coughed. There was no point reminded Wes and David of that… situation. "Well, no, not everyone is gay. These guys have girlfriends."

Wes suddenly clapped a hand to his forehead and groaned. "I was suppose to call Tiffany an hour ago."

"I can't believe she hasn't dumped you yet." David added.

"Of course she hasn't, I'm dapper and charming. Why would she dump me?"

"Because one, Blaine's the dapper and charming one, not you, and two, you're a terrible boyfriend that's why."

"You don't have any idea what sort of boyfriend I am. I'm a great boyfriend. I buy her things and finish text messages with an 'x' and an 'o' all the time. What more could she want?"

"Guys, focus." Blaine said.

"But it... doesn't matter?" Kurt asked. "That you're…"

"Dalton has a zero harassment policy." David said, suddenly a little more serious.

"Everyone is treated the same no matter what you are." Wes added.

Blaine could see straight away this struck a chord with Kurt. They way his eyes quickly filled with pain, it actually hurt to see him look like that. If wasn't that it would cross several boundaries, Blaine would have grabbed Kurt and held him in his arms, forever, so whatever was hurting him couldn't anymore. But that was highly inappropriate.

"Can you guys excuse us?" he asked Wes and David. He wasn't sure he'd be able to get Kurt to open up with them around. If it was just the two of them… maybe.

"Sure. I think we've seen enough to confirm our little spy is harmless." David said, then leaned over to whisper to Blaine. "Get him tiger."

"Take care Kurt." Wes said with a smirk and a wink, he gave Blaine a pat on the shoulder.

"Your friends are... different."

Blaine smiled a little. Different they were. Once he was sure they were well and truly gone he started talking again.

"I take it you're having trouble at school?" he asked.

"I'm the only out person at my school. And I…"

Blaine wanted nothing more than to reach over and wipe the tear falling down his face away.

"I tried to be strong about it. But there's… there's this Neanderthal who's made it his mission to make my life a living hell."

"Oh Kurt…" Blaine said softly.

Kurt avoided making eye contact with him. "Nobody seems to notice."

Blaine couldn't help but feel a deep sympathy for Kurt. Bullying made him so, so angry. The fact that teachers and faculty could just let it go on, could just pretend it didn't exist. He knew Kurt had faced some severe bullying, but he didn't realise how bad it was, or how it was breaking Kurt to pieces, he hid it so well. Kurt was nowhere near as delicate as he looked Blaine was quickly learning that. Blaine would have bolted from the school a long time ago if he were Kurt. In fact, bolting was what he had done.

"I know how you feel." He wanted to make Kurt understand that he _did_. He honestly did. "I got taunted at my old school and it really… pissed me off." Taunted was a light word, but the conversation was about Kurt now, not him. He just _needed_ Kurt to know he was there. Even if no one else in the world understood, he always would. "I complained about it to the faculty and they were sympathetic and all. But, you could just tell… nobody _really_ cared. It was like 'hey, if you're gay, your life's just gonna be miserable. Sorry. There's nothing we can do about it.' So I left, I came here. Simple as that."

Kurt didn't say anything. He just stared at his coffee cup.

"The way I see it, you have two options." He didn't know why he was suddenly playing the role of the mentor, but if it was what Kurt needed, it was what he would be. "I mean, I'd love to tell you to just come and roll here." And oh would he _love_ to have Kurt be at Dalton, join the Warblers, be in the dorms… "But tuition at Dalton is sort of steep and I know it's not an option for everybody. Or, you can refuse to be the victim." Was it stupid that he could see himself getting some sort of redemption through Kurt. Being the victim was what he had done, running away was what he had done. Kurt was a stronger person than him. Kurt could… could stand up to the bully's and actually do something about it. And at his words something in Kurt's eyes clicked. "Prejudice is just ignorance, Kurt." He said. "And you have a chance right now to teach them."

"How?"

It was the first thing he'd said during Blaine's long monologue and Blaine was encouraged by it.

"Confront them. Call them out." These were things he'd spent weeks, months, wishing he'd done to his own bully's. "I ran, Kurt. I didn't stand up, I let bully's just chase me away and it is something that I really, really regret. I don't want you to experience the same thing."

Kurt didn't say anything for a long time. He stared at Blaine, contemplating what he'd said, before finally nodding.

"Thank you, Blaine. That was… I needed to hear that. I'm sorry that you went through what you did."

"I'm always here for you Kurt."

Kurt didn't say anything else and Blaine thought a quick change in the conversation would help.

"Well, if I recall, it's Tuesday and there's a lovely little baby cousin of mine, who by the way, is growing far too quickly, for you to take care of." He said with a smile.

Kurt eyes suddenly widened as he frantically pulled out his phone and checked the time. He started at four, it was just on two-thirty now.

"Crap! How did I forget that? I have to leave right now. I'm going to be late." he said, standing up, fumbling through his bag to find his keys.

"Hey it's cool," Blaine stood up as well. "Shelbs is awesome, seriously, just send her a message that we're running a little late."

"What?" Kurt paused and stared at Blaine.

"Is that alright? If I baby sit with you?"

"Don't you have rehearsal?" Kurt asked slowly.

He shrugged. "I can miss one."

"But Wes..."

"Can deal with it. The performance today was awesome, I doubt he's going to have any issues with my part in it. Come on, you'd love to have someone to hang out with for a little while right?"

"I can hang out with Beth."

"Someone fun."

"She is fun." Kurt snapped.

Blaine couldn't hide his surprise (and mild hurt) at Kurt's sudden defensiveness. Kurt seemed to realise though and quickly backtracked.

"Sorry, I just...sorry."

"It's fine, really. But still... I'd like to come along."

"Ok." Kurt smiled, because really, the thought of spending a couple of hours alone with Blaine didn't seem too bad.

He got there in record time (and now he knew Blaine's secret, rehearsal never finished early. He just sped. A lot.) Shelby was waiting for them, holding Beth in her arms, when they arrived at the same time, she looked a little surprised for a moment then smiled.

"Fancy seeing you two getting here together." She said.

"It's a long story." Kurt told her.

She gave Blaine a pointed look, as if to silently say 'You'll fill me in later?' and he nodded dutifully. She carefully handed her daughter over to Kurt, who held her with ease, giving the baby girl a fond look.

"Well, you two boys have fun now." She kissed them both on the cheek before heading out the door.

"Bye." Kurt said.

"See ya Shelbs."

They made their way into the living room and sat down on the couch. Blaine wondered if he'd accidentally sat a little to close to Kurt, but he didn't say anything about it. He set Beth down on the floor, she was just starting to figure out how to crawl and seemed to get a mix of joy and frustration at trying to move around on her own. They both watched her silently for a while.

"She's too cute." Blaine said with a grin.

"That she really is." Kurt agreed. He then hesitated for a moment. "I, uh, I didn't get a chance to tell you, you were amazing today."

"Oh," Blaine startled for a moment. "Thanks, thank you. You really liked the performance?"

Kurt nodded. "I honestly had no idea you were so talented. I mean, I should have guessed considering your… considering your Aunt. But… you were born for the spotlight. Really."

"I'm... I'm glad you were there today, really I um, I'm just glad." He didn't know why he was tripping over his words like an idiot. But Kurt didn't seem to notice, he just smiled.

"I'm glad too."

When Shelby got home she found the two boys sitting on the couch, rather close to each other for a couch that was fairly large, but still far enough away for there to be an almost visible friends line. She smiled to herself, maybe nothing was a coincidence after all. She could see that these boys needed each other, she just wondered if they knew it too.

"Hello boys how are you?"

"Good." they both replied at the same time. Kurt jumped up.

"Beth's all settled, and uh, I didn't start cooking or anything cause well, we got distracted watching tv."

"Kurt, you don't need to cook dinner it's fine. However, you are welcome to stay if you'd like."

"Oh, I'd love to, but I can't." he said. "I'm still grounded."

"Why are you grounded?" Blaine asked.

"Uh... it's nothing. Well, I mean it's just... my dad overreacted a little and yeah," he would have thought he'd be used to lying by now, but he still felt bad. "But I don't want to push it and get grounded for even longer so... I really should go."

"Oh, ok."

Kurt wondered if he was imagining the disappointed look on Blaine's face. Blaine then quickly crossed the room and before Kurt could comprehend what was going on, wrapped his arms around his waist tightly.

For a moment he just stood there, frozen. Another boy was... was holding him. Blaine was holding him and it was _really_nice. It was warm and safe and he sort of wished he could feel this way forever. Finally he realised he should return the hug and did so gently. Slowly wrapped his arms around Blaine and squeezing him a little. He felt, rather than heard, Blaine sigh.

"Have courage Kurt." he whispered.

"I will." _For you_ he silently added. _I'll have courage for you_.

**x x x**

It was Thursday, finally, and so close to the end of the week. Earlier that day he'd gotten a message from Shelby, asking if he could emergency baby sit that afternoon straight after school. He'd agreed immediately.

It was the end of the school day and he couldn't tear his eyes away from his phone. It was a simple, short, one word message from Blaine, but it meant the world to him. No one had ever told him to stand up for himself the way Blaine had before. It was always 'you can't let it get to you' or 'they can't push you around, remember that' no one had ever said 'stand up and fight for yourself'. No one had ever told him to have courage before.

Suddenly the phone was slapped out of his hand and he was pushed roughly against the lockers. It hurt and it took him several long seconds for him to register what had happened.

Karofksy had disappeared around the corner, headed to the locker room, before Kurt finally made a decision and chased after him.

"Hey!" He shouted. _Courage. Have courage._ "I'm talking to you!" His heart was pounding, and honestly, he had no idea what he was doing.

"The girl's locker room is next door."

"What is your problem?"

"Excuse me?"

"What are you so scared of?"

'_Teach them'_ That's what Blaine had said. '_Teach them_' he was no different, just because he liked guys. He wasn't any different.

He didn't even know what he was saying anymore. He was just shouting, shouting about how, yeah, every gay guy was out to convert the rest of the straight ones… _obviously_. Hoping against hope that Karofsky might finally see to understand him, understand how absurd homophobia was, and it all might finally stop.

He hated, hated that Blaine had been able to get away from this stuff. That he'd been able to move to a safe haven while Kurt was stuck in his own hell.

There was no way his dad could afford a place like Dalton. Not when... not when he was sure things were getting serious with Carole and... no, Dalton would never be a real option for him.

He was shouting still, something about Karofsky not being his type, basically taunting him to hit him, that Karofsky could beat him to a pulp but it wouldn't, it couldn't change who he was. And something in Karofsky changed, the way he looked at him. He lunged forward and Kurt flinched, waiting for the blow, but it didn't come.

Suddenly he felt large hands on either side of his face and a mouth, wet, warm and hard was on his.

Kurt froze.

Every part of his mind was screaming to pull himself away, to fight as hard as it took. But before his body could actually respond Karofsky was pulling away, looking as shocked at his own actions as Kurt felt by them. He leant in again and Kurt recoiled quickly, watching with wide eyes as Karofsky punched the locker and gave Kurt a look of frustration before storming out.

Kurt slumped back against the lockers, his fingers on his lips trying to comprehend what had just happened.

He then caught sight of the clock on the wall.

He had to go to Shelby's and baby sit.

He didn't want to. But he realised the distraction might be good. Because there was no way he ready to try and comprehend what the hell had just happened.

He drove quickly to Shelby's house, singing along to Defying Gravity loudly, determined to keep his mind off what had happened for as long as possible. He would think about, and deal with it later. Right now, he was just going to go to Shelby's take care of Beth for a couple of hours and go home.

Home...

He hadn't told his dad where he was going.

As soon as he pulled up on the street he searched for his phone. But couldn't find it.

"Crap." he muttered.

He'd dropped it when Karofsky had shoved him and hadn't gone back to get it. There was no way it would still be there in the morning, it wouldn't even still be there now, someone would have either picked it up (stolen it) or it would have been trampled on, and crushed to pieces. It would be in vain to hope someone half decent might actually come across it first and get it back to him.

He sighed heavily and walked up the path to the front door. It opened before he could even knock.

But instead of being met by Shelby's warm smile, he was met by the heart stopping one of Blaine.

"Blaine?" he said stupidly. Hadn't he dealt with enough for one day? Now Blaine was here and he was once again going to have to try and get his feelings under control.

"Hi Kurt. Come on in."

"Uh, ok. What are you doing here? Where's Shelby?"

"You literally just missed her. I'm here because uh..." he went a little red. "Aunt Shelbs told me she needed you to sit tonight and thought you might want my, I mean, the company."

"Oh." Kurt didn't know what to say. It wasn't that he didn't want to spend time with Blaine (because actually, he really, really did) but he'd wanted time to gather his thoughts. And come to terms with what had just happened. "Uh, cool. Let me just call my dad."

His dad answered on the second ring. "Hello?"

"Hi, it's me."

"Where are you?" he demanded. "I thought Glee practice finished ages ago."

"It did. Look, Shelby asked me to emergency baby sit for her, and I was going to let you know, but I accidentally left my phone in my locker. Sorry, I swear it won't happen again."

"Alright kiddo, but, another incident like this and I'll cut back on your allowance. You're still on thin ice."

Kurt sighed knowing he had no power to protest, not now that at any point his dad could bring up 'You had a child without telling me' at any point to use against him and he had nothing to retaliate that with. Because it was true.

"It won't happen again." he said.

"Good. Love you son."

"Love you too dad."

He hung up and turned to find Blaine watching him carefully.

"Are you in trouble?" he asked

Kurt shook his head. "No, it's fine. So... What do you want to do? Where's Beth?" He suddenly itched to hold her in his arms. Because, as stupid as it maybe sounded (he really didn't know) she made the world a little better, and she might make what had happen today not seem so bad.

"Uh… Shelbs said she was down for a nap, and that we'd hear her on the monitor if she woke up. I'd like to eat, actually. Are you hungry? I think there's some left overs in the fridge we can help ourselves to."

Kurt shook his head. "You go ahead." He sat down heavily on the couch, without his usual gracefulness. He wouldn't wake her up. She would scream and cry and… he didn't want to deal with it.

Blaine stopped and gave him a curious look. "Are you ok?"

"Fine." Kurt had trouble believing him himself.

"What happened?" Blaine was on the couch next to him in a second.

Kurt debated with himself for a moment. Over whether or not he should tell Blaine. Maybe… maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea. He couldn't tell anyone at school. It would only go one of two ways. They'd have a fit and run after Karofksy screaming and yelling and pretty much out him on the spot (which, some part of Kurt's subconscious mind had already decided he didn't want to do, it wouldn't be right) or they would ask him why he was making such ridiculous things up and if he was really starving for attention that much.

"Go get something to eat first. Then I'll tell you all about it ok?"

"Are you sure?"

Kurt nodded. "Believe me, I really don't feel like eating right now."

The feeling still sitting in the pit of his stomach wasn't something he'd felt since finding out Quinn was pregnant.

"Here." Blaine returned quickly and handed Kurt a glass of water.

"Thank you." Kurt smiled gratefully. Blaine was going to make it impossible for Kurt to not completely fall for him wasn't he?

Blaine sat down next to him, again, closer than he needed to, but with just enough distance to draw a distinct line that said 'friends only'. He had a glass of water himself, which he places carefully on the floor and a bowl of pasta.

"So… what happened?"

"I… I really don't know where to start." Kurt sighed and leaned back against the couch, staring up at the ceiling for a moment.

"How about from the beginning."

Kurt shot him a look. "I meant I don't know how to approach it. You know, you know the guy I was talking to about? On Tuesday? The one that has personally seen to it to make my life hell?"

"Yes." Blaine said carefully.

"I was thinking about what you said, and about that message you sent me. Telling me to have courage."

A slight flush blossomed on Blaine's cheeks as he smiled shyly. "Yeah, I remember."

"Well… today, this afternoon, actually, after Glee he… he shoved me again. Really hard. He… he knocked my phone out my hands and as he walked of I… I couldn't stop thinking about what you said. About what I should do. So, I chased after him." He stopped. Suddenly once again able to feel Karofsky on him, and he suddenly had the urge to rinse his mouth out, over and over.

"Kurt," Blaine's hand was suddenly on his knee, the warmth of it seeping through the denim he had on. It sent tingles up and down his leg, and made his heart race a little fast. A simple touch like that shouldn't do that to a person. "It's ok."

"I… I don't even really remember what I said now." Kurt felt, rather than heard his voice crack a little. "But, I was yelling at him, and then I thought it was going to hit me but he…" He stopped and swallowed hard. Blaine squeezed his knee in encouragement and Kurt took a deep breath. "He kissed me."

"What?" Blaine couldn't have hid his surprise even if he wanted to.

"It was awful." Kurt chanced a look at Blaine who looked like he was about to cry on his behalf. "I can't even…"

"It's ok."

They stared at each other for a moment. Then Blaine's face lit up a little.

"What…?" Kurt gave him a dubious look.

"There could be a way for your bullying to end."

"Really?"

"Yeah!" He was looking more enthusiastic by the second. "This guy, Karofsky right? Is obviously confused about his sexuality right? I mean, why else would he kiss you? If you… if _we_ offered to help him out he might, he might come to terms with who he is, and accept it, and… he'd stop bullying you. Don't you see? He only picks on you so much because you're out, and you're proud of who you are."

"Blaine… Karofsky is bigger than both of us combined, I don't know that just approaching him is a good idea."

"Then we'll do it out in the open. Or at least, somewhere open enough that people will be able to see if things get too rough."

"Do you really think we should approach him?"

Blaine nodded. "Yes. How about tomorrow, at lunch? I have a free block right in the middle of the day so I could come over here and… and we can do this. Together."

"I still don't think it's a good idea, but…" He hesitated for a moment, and somehow his hand ended up on top of the one Blaine had on his knee. "I'd rather try than, than wonder what would happen if I didn't."

**x x x **

Puck, was minding his own business, school had finished, Glee rehearsal had finished and he… didn't want to go home. Things had sucked enough before he found himself in juvie, but they were even worse now. His mom had yet some other new boyfriend and… the only reason he went home anymore was for his little sister to make sure she was getting fed, and was doing her homework and stuff like that, cause, he was her big brother. That was just what he was supposed to do. But he wasn't quite ready to go home for the day yet; instead he wandered around the school, it was pretty much empty. He was actually heading to the gym to do some weights, and work on his biceps a little, when he noticed a phone just sitting there, lying on the ground like any old thing. His eyes lit up a little. If it was in good enough condition, he could probably make a bit of spare change selling it on ebay. He walked over to it and picked it up.

Weird, who would just leave their, he checked the back, 32 gig iPhone just laying on the floor like that? There was no one around.

He hit the home button and swiped at the screen the idiot who owned it didn't use a passcode. This was too easy, there was a message conversation on the screen, the last one read _'Courage- Blaine'_. Puck shrugged, maybe it was an inside joke.

The obvious option was to go straight to the Facebook app and see who they were logged in as, so that's what he did. Thinking maybe he would post an incriminating status update just for the laughs.

Kurt Hummel.

Huh...

Maybe he'd give it back after all. Hummel wasn't so bad once you got past the weird clothes he wore (really, what was wrong with jeans and a hoodie?). But not before he took a look at what sort of things Hummel kept on his phone. Because… he was curious. Hummel was loud, but actually pretty quiet. He talked to the girls a lot. Like, Mercedes, and Tina. But he didn't talk to the guys all that much. Puck was actually pretty sure he still flinched sometimes when he was just walking past (which he didn't really have an issue with, because he was a badass, and people _should_ flinch as he walked past) and he always tried to go with the girls when Schue split them up.

Puck chuckled to himself as he posted a vulgar status update, it was pretty badass of him do to something like that. He then opened up the phone's photo album to have a quick look (yeah, he couldn't help wonder if maybe Hummel was secretly kind of kinky, and had naked pictured of dudes or something, because the innocent looking ones usually were).

What he hadn't been expecting was to see pictures of a baby. He opened one up full screen.

It was a very cute baby, you know, for a baby anyway. There was fair hair on it's (her? Maybe) head, and bright blue eyes stared up into the camera. Bright blue... and that nose…

Puck was sometimes a little daft. Like the time he didn't realise girls didn't have prostate, yeah, a lot of things got past him. But, he had street smarts, and a lot of them. And suddenly a whole lot of things were making sense. A _lot _of sense.

He _knew_ who this baby was. Hell, every person at this school believed he, Noah Puckerman, was her father. He wasn't. He'd suspected many things last year, multiple scenario's had played out in his mind, because she would never tell him the real story. But this had never crossed his mind. Because who would suspect _this_?

This revelation was a mind fuck and a half and _what_ the _hell_?

Hummel?


	10. Puck

**A/N: So my Mum's really behind on Glee, and was just recently watching the Born This Way episode, and I happened to walk into the room during SOWK and my mum turns and looks at me and goes 'He's just so… ridiculous! I can't stand this character' and yeah, she was talking about Blaine! **

… **I'm officially calling it; I'm adopted. **

**Anyway, thank you guys so, so much for all your awesome reviews, I love them. I'm so sorry about the wait for this chapter. It's the end of semester and **_**everything**_** is due and it's kind of killing me. And my immune system decided to conk out on me so I have this awful cold I'm battling in the process. **

**Also, is it Breadsticks or Breadstix? I've seen both… I don't live in America and had never even heard of the place until Glee.**

* * *

"Well, he's not coming out anytime soon." Blaine tried to joke casually. Truthfully, he was a little shaken at being slammed up against the railing of the stairs, and the flashbacks to his old school he'd had suddenly, but for Kurt's sake he didn't want to show it.

Kurt didn't laugh though. Far from it. He slumped down with a defeated look and sat on the stairs.

"What's going on?" He asked.

Kurt shrugged.

"Come on Kurt, he's _just _a bully. Why are you so upset?"

Kurt shook his head.

"Cause, up until yesterday... I'd never been kissed. At least." he let out a short bitter laugh. "When it counted."

Blaine felt shame wash over him. Just a couple of weeks ago hadn't he been trying to kiss Kurt, in the bathroom? What was wrong with him? Kurt was innocent. Really innocent if he hadn't so much as kissed anyone. And sure, maybe he'd never had a boyfriend either, and it wasn't like he'd slept with anyone or anything. But he'd... tested the waters a little. He'd known other gay guys.

He felt like a jerk. Trying to seduce Kurt, making him fall for him. Kurt wasn't ready for any of that yet. He needed to back off and just... be a friend for a little while. Because that was what Kurt needed. A friend. Not a boyfriend. He'd have to just… try and forget everything about Kurt that made his heart beat a little faster, that made him melt just a little. He'd just have to push that all aside and be a friend, a… a mentor to Kurt. Yeah, that's what he'd be. A mentor.

"Come on." he said. "I'll buy you lunch." In a completely platonic way.

He stood up, but didn't take Kurt's hand as he otherwise normally would. He even walked slightly ahead of Kurt the whole way to car. He could do this. He could not hit on Kurt, not be distracted by trying to work out exactly what colour his eyes were, or by the fact he'd never before realised they made pants that fit so… well…

He could be just a friend.

**x x x**

He missed fifth period English he had straight after lunch for going to Breadsticks with Blaine. Usually he'd panic over missing a class. But today, he didn't really care. It had been nice to just get away from McKinley and take a break from the otherwise awful day he'd been having.

He lost his phone. Karofsky didn't seem to be about to stop making his life hell and Mike Change and Sam had designed their costumes for the mashup competition (they hadn't done a bad job, but he could have done better). But not even lunch with Blaine had made him feel that much better. Blaine had been acting different at lunch. Shorter with him. Never quite meeting his eye. Not reaching out to touch him once and he was confused.

He really shouldn't have told Blaine about Karofsky being his first kiss (with a boy, Quinn and Brittany didn't count). He was on his way to his last class of the day, the hallway was quickly emptying at students disappeared into classrooms when he heard his name.

"Hummel."

He stopped mid step and turned around. He sighed heavily when he saw Puck standing there. He wasn't in the mood.

"What?" he snapped, before realising he was holding out his phone.

"Lose this?"

"Oh. Well… the stuff on facebook makes a whole lot of sense now."

"I was disappointed when you deleted it. Anyway, it's not my fault you don't keep a password on your phone. The opportunity was right there."

Kurt took a few hesitant steps forwards.

"Are you going to give it back?"

"Maybe." Puck mused. "It's in pretty good condition though. I could get a pretty penny from selling it."

"I'm really not in the mood for this." Kurt folded his arms across his chest impatiently. "And I know you don't care, but I'm late for history."

"You skipped English." He said.

"Yeah, I know. Are you giving my phone back or is this a futile conversation?"

"I'll give it back if you answer a question for me."

"No, I don't think you're 'hot stuff'." Kurt brought his hands up to make air quotes.

"Ok, one, I know that's a lie, because everyone thinks I'm hot stuff. And two, not the question I had in mind."

Kurt rolled his eyes.

"Fine. What is it?"

Puck looked around a little uneasily, checking that there truly was no one else around. His free hand shoved deep into his pocket. He stared at the ground for several long seconds before looking up and looking Kurt directly in the eye.

"Are you the father of Quinn's baby?"

Kurt felt himself go cold. He could feel the colour draining quickly from his face and he suddenly felt numb all over. He couldn't form a single coherent thought. His brain just couldn't work fast enough to comprehend what he'd just been asked.

"I... n-no. Why would you, what would give you that idea?"

As the words left his mouth, he remembered suddenly that he still had photos of her on his phone from showing his Dad. Puck had seen them. There was no doubt in Kurt's mind that Puck had gone looking through his phone and had seen them. How did he know the baby was Beth? How did he figure it out?

Kurt swallowed hard. Only one truly coherent thought was going through his mind.

_Lie. Lie. Lie. Lie._

"Hummel, I'm not an idiot."

"I'm not. I swear, I'm not." He was shaking his head. Puck had long ago stopped shoving him into lockers and throwing him in the dumpster. But would he start again? Wasn't Puck in love with Quinn, or something? It had sure seemed like it last year.

"And I'm pretty sure you are." Puck took a step forward.

"Don't hurt me." He was flinching already.

Puck paused and frowned.

"Why would I hurt you?" He sounded genuinely confused that Kurt had thought he would.

"Aren't you in love with her?"

Puck paused, just long enough to give Kurt his answer.

"No."

"Yeah, right."

"Are you Beth's father?" He asked again, slowly.

Kurt chanced a look at Puck. He was surprised to see there was no anger in his face. Just… something he couldn't quite describe. And suddenly, Kurt felt an overwhelming desire to admit it, just to… to see how it would feel. But he couldn't. He'd sooner tell Mercedes than Puck. Hell, he'd sooner tell Rachel.

"Yes." His eyes went wide as he processed what he'd said. "I-I mean…" he faltered. There was no backtracking now. It was done. It was over. Puck knew, and soon everyone would know. He sighed and stared at the ground, refusing to meet Puck's gaze.

"Oh." Puck only looked mildly surprised. "I thought it would be harder to get you to admit it. I was honestly ready to hold your phone under threat. Especially that some guy named Blaine has sent you about fifty thousand messages since I found it."

Blaine had been messaging him? What had he been saying? Kurt tried to push to momentary distraction of Blaine aside.

"What are you going to do now? Tell the school?"

"How?"

Kurt shrugged.

"I don't know, you still have my phone, post it as my status or something. Though, no one would believe that. You might want to upload some of those photo's as well."

Puck shook his head.

"I meant how did... how did _you_and Fabray come about? In what world was there a situation where the two of you were alone together long enough to… you know? And how did you even… don't you like dudes?"

Kurt rolled his eyes.

"Really, _that's_ the question you ask?"

Puck shrugged.

"I don't know what I'm suppose to say. This is the biggest mind fuck ever. Seriously, I've been _trying_to picture the two of you together and I just can't."

"Can I ask you a question then?" Kurt asked, more than happy to gloss over the fact that Puck had actually admitted to trying to mentally imagine him… yeah… because _that_ wasn't weird…

"Yeah, you can have your phone back."

"Ok, this assuming we know what the other is going to ask thing needs to stop. But… if you don't mind." Kurt held out his hand and Puck handed the phone over. "Did you actually believe she was yours?"

"Beth?"

"Yeah."

"No." Puck shook his head. "I mean, Quinn is hot and all… kind of really hot. But, bros' before hoes' yeah? I wouldn't to do that to Finn."

Kurt raised an eyebrow.

"Ok… _maybe_ if the opportunity was there, it would be hard to resist. But, it wasn't."

"Then why did you tell people you were the father?"

"I was protecting her." Puck said. "And… you, I guess, inadvertently, not that I knew that. It had nothing to do with me!"

"You're not making any sense."

"Fine, look. I knew about it because Finn told me."

**x x x**

Quinn was pregnant. Quinn Fabray, captain of the _celibacy_ club (and probably the only one in that club actually celibate, or so he'd once thought) was pregnant.

With a child that wasn't Finn's. Puck knew that. He knew that because Finn had said 'Quinn's pregnant.' Not 'I had sex with Quinn, and now she's pregnant.' But he also knew that Finn was under the impression the baby currently growing inside his girlfriend was his. He didn't know how Finn figured that worked, but… whatever.

He spotted her walking down the hall. She was holding her books against her stomach and avoiding eye contact with everything. He took quicker strides to catch up to her.

"Sup MILF?"

"Leave me alone." She walked a little faster.

"Who's the daddy?" He easily kept up with her, because, no, she wasn't getting out of this so easily. "I just think it's kind weird if it's Finn, since I know for a fact you didn't do it with him."

She stopped suddenly and he smirked a little.

"How can you be so sure?" She asked him, raising an eyebrow.

"Finn's my boy, he would've told me." He said, watching as doubt flickered briefly across her face before her neutral, hard, expression fell back into place.

"Maybe I told him not to."

"Or _maybe_." He dragged the word out. "You're hiding a dirty little secret."

"Just shut up Puckerman. This isn't any of your business. Now leave me alone."

She started to storm off.

"Well call the Vatican, we got ourselves another immaculate conception." Before he knew what was happened she'd grabbed him by the collar as was pulling him aside, hissing at him to shut up and asking him what the hell he wanted from her.

"I'll take care of it you know? You too."

"What? It's _Finn's_ baby. I don't _need_ you to be taking care of anything."

"Come on." Puck folded his arms across his chest. "You and I both know… it's not Finn's baby is it?"

Her non-response was enough of an answer for him. He knew it. She'd never have slept with Finn. Not with her 'I'm going to be a tease in this skirt, but never give it up' attitude and the fact that Finn was actually way too terrified of Quinn to even suggest the possibility that maybe they could go a little further.

"Who's is it?" He asked. "Do they know?"

"It's none of your damn business." She said, blinking back tears, and oh crap… he didn't deal with crying. Not ever. Not even Quinn freaking Fabray. "And no, they don't know."

"Are you going to tell them?"

She shook her head. "He won't care that I'm pregnant."

"Then I'll do it." Puck wasn't really sure what he was saying, only that… he was saying it.

"Do what?"

"Look, I know my boy Finn is a bit of an idiot, but he's going to work it out one day. One day he'll realise that you actually need to do the deed to get a girl preggers, or he'll see that this kid actually looks nothing like him, or something will happen and he'll figure out you lied to him, and what are you going to do then? What will you do when he starts to get really angry at you for lying to him? If you don't want people to know who the real father is… tell them I am."

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

"Is it really?"

"Finn is your best friend. Why would you sacrifice that for a lie?"

He knew the answer. It was because Quinn was the sort of girl you gave the world to if she asked for it. It was because she was the sort of girl you wanted, but watched from a distance because you'd screw it up royally if you convinced her to give you a chance. Quinn was the sort of girl you protected from anything and everything.

"Let me ask you this. Whoever… whoever he was, this guy that you actually did sleep with… what would happen if people found out?"

"I'd go straight to the bottom of the food chain at this school. But that's going to happen anyway when people work out that I didn't just eat big lunch, but am _pregnant_."

Puck raised his eyebrows a little.

"A nerd got it on with you? A _nerd_? That's just… see? This is my point… do you want to be pregnant _and_ getting a slushie facial every day? At least say you cheated on Finn with someone cool."

"You?"

"I'm not saying that you… that you have to but isn't it better? To at least have cheated on your boyfriend with someone hot who everyone wants? Rather than some… skinny white nerd?"

"I'm not making any promises."

**x x x**

Kurt was silent for a few long moments after Puck finished telling his story, because, really, it didn't clear anything up for him at all. If he'd been truthful, right up until the moment Beth was born, Kurt hadn't been able to help but wonder, in the back of his mind, if maybe something _had_ gone on between Puck and Quinn. Once he'd tried to approach her about it and find out, but all he'd gotten was a sharp look and a quick 'I've had sex once, and I got pregnant from it. That's all you need to know.' Before she'd walked off. He'd never been sure if she had a reason to lie to him or not.

"That still doesn't explain why you _told_ Mercedes you were the father."

Puck shrugged.

"I don't have to explain myself to you."

"You told people you were the father of _my_ child! I think you definitely have to explain yourself."

"I did more than you. You just sat on the sidelines, watched her get kicked out of home, move from Finn's, to mine, to Mercedes' and never said a word. You were a coward Hummel. Someone had to be willing to step up and take the place as that kid's Dad and you did jack all. What if she'd decided to keep it? What would you have done then? Because she nearly did you know? She nearly kept it."

Kurt hadn't known that. He'd always thought… from day one that…

She nearly kept her?

He didn't know why that wanted to make him burst into tears.

"Her." He said quietly.

"What?"

"Not 'it'… her. I don't know what you want me to say." He was staring at the ground now. "I did what I could think to do. It's easy for you to stand where you are and judge… but if I'd come out," He let out a short, humourless laugh at his choice of words. "And said I was the father she'd have denied it. And people would have believed her. Because why would she have sex with someone like me? And why would I be having sex with a girl anyway?"

Puck shrugged. He supposed he could see Kurt's point, in a way. About why he never told anyone.

"Please Puck, for both our sakes don't tell anyone. The baby drama was supposed to be over. This year is a new start everything's different and last year doesn't matter anymore. Don't go… opening it all up again. Quinn just wants to forget about her."

"Should she?"

"What?"

"Should she forget about Beth?"

Kurt shrugged.

"If it's easier, then, I suppose." He thought to the day, it hadn't been that long ago when Quinn had collapsed into his arms crying. He sometimes forgot, that as hard as the situation was for him, it was probably a hundred times harder for her. It probably _was_ easier for her to try and forget it ever happened, to try and forget Beth ever existed. Which… broke his heart, honestly. Because in his completely biased opinion, Beth was the most amazing little girl ever and Quinn _deserved_ to know her.

"What about you?"

"Why do you care so much?"

"I don't." Puck folded his arms across his chest. "I really don't care. I'm just curious. That's all. Because you have photos of her on your phone, they look pretty recent too. I just mean… you know, how'd you get them? Why are they on your phone?"

"I'm not having this conversation with you." Kurt said. "Just… don't tell anyone. Please."

"I won't. Only because Quinn scares the shit out of me most of the time."

"Thank you."

"Yeah, whatever. You owe me though."

Kurt would be lying if he said he wasn't a little terrified at what Puck would pull, now having the biggest piece of blackmail ever.

**x x x**


	11. Jeremiah

**A/N: I'm not dead! Wow, I can't… I just cannot apologise enough for this update being so, so, incredibly late. Basically, I hit a bit of writer's block, then just as I was overcoming it I got really super busy with life, and though thing have calmed down now, I'm only just getting back into the swing of things and writing. I'm also sorry if this chapter is filled with typos, I did an edit, but only quickly, because I was so eager to post it! **

**Thank you all so so much for all the reviews and uh… I hope it hasn't been too long and you're all still interested in this story. Definitely leave a review if you are, so I know :).**

* * *

Wes banged his gavel loudly and declared the end of their practice. Blaine kept his sigh of relief to himself and responded to the 'well done's and 'great job's of the other Warblers with a forced smile. No one noticed though. His show face was flawless.

He was about to leave and head up to his dorm when a hand clamped down on his shoulder. He turned to see Wes looking at him seriously, David stood right behind him, with an identical look on his face.

"Warbler Blaine, a word."

"I know, I was a little off for the first couple of lines. I'll get it down pat soon, I swear."

"It's not that." David said.

"Though," Wes added. "Yeah, you were, and yeah, that would be good."

"What is it then?" Blaine frowned.

"You've been acting strange."

"I have?"

"Yes, you have." David said.

"Strange how?"

"For starters, you didn't jump on furniture at all." Wes pointed out. "Which is fine, because I'd rather not have to worry about you breaking your neck every rehearsal. But, Nick handed you a pile of sheet music and you just passed it on to the next guy."

"Huh?" Blaine had no idea what they were getting at, he handed someone some paper. So what?

"Paper confetti is your thing Blaine!" Wes said. "I don't know when, or how, and I gave up on trying to decipher why, but it is. What's up?"

"Nothing." Blaine glanced at his watch. He'd normally be halfway to his Aunt's by now. Only he wasn't. He wasn't going to go at all. For the first time in weeks. It felt a little strange if he were honest.

"Is this to do with Kurt?"

"If he found out you weren't going to give him our set list and dumped you we will go and kick his ass." David said. "I can't believe he'd do that to you! Who uses a person like that? It's so... so... I just... I... Wes, help me out. I'm too mad to form a coherent sentence."

"Blaine, talk to us, what's going on?"

"Guys, I'm fine," he snapped. "I just... look, it's nothing ok. I'm going to go out for a while."

He heard the tail end of the conversation as he was leaving.

"David, does being gay make guys get pms?"

"No, no it doesn't."

"Think this has something to do with Kurt?"

"Yes, yes I do."

"I've never seen Blaine like this. I think he needs our help."

"I completely agree."

"So we're chasing after him?"

"Oh, definitely."

**x x x**

Somehow Blaine found himself at Starbucks with Wes and David (who were going to share a large caramel frappé and chocolate croissant, and apparently he was the gay one?). While they were arguing about god knows what (no really, he'd rather never know), he stepped up to the counter to order his usual, a medium drip.

"That's three fifty."

Blaine looked in his wallet, he had exactly three dollars and ten cents and groaned. Of course this would happen to just top off an awesome week. He gave the girl behind the counter a frustrated, forced smile.

"Uh... I'll have to change that to a small, sorry."

"Ok, then that'll be-

"Here,"

There was a tap on his shoulder and Blaine turned to see a smiling blonde boy looking at him holding out fifty cents.

"Oh, that's ok, I... really, it's-

"No, it's fine," the stranger insisted and went past Blaine to hand it to the girl at the counter. "Medium drip, that's what you ordered right?" He turned back to Blaine briefly, double checking.

"Uh, yeah." Blaine found himself blushing. "Thank you."

"No sweat. While I'm here, I'll have a chai tea."

The guy ended up paying the full three fifty for Blaine's coffee and refused to take his money, and Blaine just stood there dumbly not knowing what to say, or how to respond. They made their way around to the side of the counter where orders were collected and waited.

"So, I'm Jeremiah." the guy said, still smiling.

"Oh, cool," Blaine nodded, until his brain caught up. "I mean, Blaine. I'm uh, my name's Blaine."

"Nice to meet you, Blaine. You go to Dalton?" he asked, glancing at the uniform briefly.

"Yep. Yeah, I do, I'm a junior there. What about you?"

"Oh. I'm at Ohio State. Doesn't uh, Dalton have a rep of being a, uh, a gay school?"

"We're not all gay." Blaine said quickly. "I mean, I am. And it's awesome that no one there even cares. But plenty of the guys have girlfriends." Normally, Blaine wouldn't fnd it necessary to throw out that he was gay so quickly in a conversation with someone. But this guy was cute, and was making conersation with him, and he wanted to guage his reaction. He wanted to know if there was even the slightest chance his could be flirting. Or if it was just friendly conversation.

"Oh that's cool. Well um, your friends are kind of blatantly staring," (Blaine glanced to Wes and David who quickly looked in opposite directions) "Which is making me a bit uncomfortable, and I have to get to work anyway, so, it was nice meeting you."

"You too." Blaine smiled.

"Um, before I go... here's my number," he handed Blaine a slip of paper with a cell number written on it (did he just have it lying around in his pocket just in case, or what?) "I know how hard it can be, being a gay teen in Ohio of all places. So, if you ever need someone to talk to just, give me a buzz, yeah? Don't be a stranger."

"O-ok." Blaine gingerly took the paper with the number on it, and with a smile and a pat on the shoulder, Jeremiah was gone. And Blaine had his number.

A boy, a reasonably attractive, most likely gay, older (college, he was in_college_) boy had just given Blaine's his number. His mood was suddenly lifted because, maybe there was hope for him after all. He wouldn't be pathetically single for the rest of his life. His grouchy mood from the last couple of days was magically gone, just like that from a simple exchange of paper, and he felt good about life again. He sauntered over to Wes and David who wore identical smirks. He wasn't even annoyed by it.

"So..." Wes prompted. "Tell us what just happened?"

Blaine produced the piece of paper.

"Phone number," he said.

"More info?"

"His name's Jeremiah, he's in college, and I'm ninety-nine per cent certain he's gay. I mean, he gave me his phone number, he wouldn't have done that if he wasn't. Right?"

"Judging from the hair alone, I'm thinking yeah, gay." David said.

"So, you're just over Kurt then, just like that?"

Blaine found himself blushing.

"I was never into Kurt, like that. We're just friends."

"Right, ok," with lightening quick fingers Wes snatched his phone from his pocket, Blaine tried to protest, but it did no good. "That's why he's messaged you eight times today and... Blaine! You've barely replied to any of them! Why not?"

"I haven't had time." Blaine grabbed his phone back. "I'll reply when I get a chance."

**x x x**

'_where were you last night? –K_'

Kurt sent the message but sighed, he didn't exactly expect much of a response. Blaine had been short with him all week. His texts had barely been longer than a few words each, when he replied at all, and then he hadn't shown up at Shelby's at all. Kurt couldn't help but wonder if he'd done something wrong. But then, it was easier to blame Karofsky. If that had never happened, he never would have stupidly admitted to Blaine he'd never been kissed by boy, and Blaine would be none the wiser and talking to him normally. Blaine probably thought he was this blushing, innocent, as-virgin-as-you-can-possibly-get kid. While Blaine had probably more than likely not only kissed boys, but had boyfriends, maybe even done other stuff...

But Kurt wasn't as innocent as he came across, he too had done 'other stuff'. Even if, _that_ night was mostly a blurry haze and his most vivid memories were of arms and legs all over the place, and feeling completely empty afterwards (and realising, yeah, he was definitely gay and had no desire to repeat that experience with a girl ever again), there was still very solid evidence that it had happened. He just... didn't want that night to count. He sort of... really wanted his first time to have feelings involved. Well, feelings more like 'I love you' and 'You really mean something to me' instead of resentment, and frustration and just wanting to know what it would be like to be a _normal_guy (though, imagining he was wth a guy to begin with probably counteract that).

His phone suddenly beeped with a reply.

'_I'm so sorry Kurt, Warbler practice went way over time. Wes is freaking out about sectionals big time and I have a solo and just couldn't get away. I'll make it up to you :) hangout soon? I'll see you next Tues?_'

Kurt's heart may, or may not, have leaped a little at Blaine's lengthy reply, it was pathetic, but it was the most Blaine had communicated with him in what was far too long. He quickly typed back.

'_Oh absolutely :) x_' He hesitated over keeping the 'x' as part of the message, or deleting it. So he hit send before he could find the one hundred and one reasons to not leave an x at the end of it.

Moments later he got a text back with a smiley face and he smile to himself.

x x x

When Burt and Carole had approached Kurt at his locker school he had first been confused. Then he'd been worried. His dad wouldn't have told Carole... would he? Surely not. He'd promised and Hummel men kept their word right? Then, in the middle of his internal panic it registered they were smiling, a lot. There was no way they'd been smiling if this was about... that.

"Uh, what?"

"Where's Finn?" Burt looked around as if expecting the boy to appear from nowhere.

"I... don't know. Why?"

"You'll find out." Carole said. "Where's his locker?"

"Uh, this way." suddenly he had his dad on one side, and Carole on the other and they were walking through the school. He was a strange mix of embarrassed and confused and faces turned to stare at the odd trio walking through the corridors. When Finn saw them he looked alarmed for a second, then just as confused.

"Oh, what's going on?" he asked. "Is this one of those interventions? Cause-"

"If it is it's for the both of us, they bombarded me and forced me to bring them to you." Kurt told him.

"Go on, tell them!" Burt said excitedly.

Very quickly, Carole and Burt started bickering with each other about who should tell them. All the while Finn and Kurt shared a look of _'tell them what?'_ but, judging by their tone it was definitely good news.

"You know how I drive Carole to work every Tuesday?"

Finn and Kurt both nodded.

"Well, today, I drove here, and we snuck into that classroom where Kurt introduced us, which was very romantic of me, I might add, and-"

"He proposed!" Carole burst out. "He proposed."

"You stole the punch line." Burt said playfully, before kissing her.

"This… just happened?" Finn asked.

Kurt couldn't keep the smile off his face. He was happy for his Dad. After everything the man had been through… he deserved to be happy. Finn, however, was clearly still processing the news, and didn't look too thrilled.

"We wanted the two of you to be the first to know." Carole said.

"Yeah… after the kids in their homeroom. Come on, family hug."

"I'm so excited, and nervous." Carole admitted.

"Oh, don't be." Kurt said quickly. He already had multiple plans and ideas floating through his head. "This is just what I needed." And it really was. What else was better to take his mind off everything… Karofsky, Blaine… Beth… than a wedding? "I will take care of it from here. I have a trunk full of wedding magazines, hidden under my bed. I'm thinking uh a, russet and carnelian theme- those are colours Finn, fall wedding colours."

"Ok, don't get too extravagant Kurt." Burt quickly pointed out. "We're going to to use whatever savings we have on the honeymoon."

A grin spread across Carole's face.

"That's right." He nodded. "We're going to go to Waikiki. We're going to go to that hotel where they put up the guest stars in Lost."

"Finn, you haven't said anything." Carole said.

"Uh, I…" He stuttered for a moment. "I guess I'm just kind of stunned."

"Hey, don't worry, we're already looking for a bigger house, one where everyone's going to get their own rooms." Burt assured him.

"Come on hon, be happy for me?" Carole asked.

"I am mom." He said, and Kurt couldn't for a second doubt his honesty.

"Alright, now listen, Kurt, as the wedding planner I only want you to take care of one thing. I don't care about the food, or the booze at the party. But I want one heck of a band. I've been eating right and I've been exercising and I want to boogie with Carole at this wedding, alright?"

Carole laughed with delight, unable to contain herself. And Kurt, well, he knew instantly what he was going to do.

"Alright, it's already taken care of Dad. I'm going to hire the New Directions as your band. Right? It won't cost you a cent. They're cheap, they're available," even Finn was now quickly nodding in agreement at the idea. "Long story short, you're having a Glee wedding."

Kurt, still giddy and with ideas for colours, flower arrangements, and locations swarming in his head, sent a message to Blaine.

'_Wont see you next Tues sorry_.'

_'Why not? :(_'

'_Dad and his girlfriend Carole are getting married :) I'm planning it for them._'

'_Want help? I could come over and help you next Tues before going to Shelbs instead._'

Kurt typed back a casual reply.

'_Sure if you want._'

But he couldn't stop himself from grinning like an idiot for the rest of the day. Blaine was going to be coming over to his house.

**x x x**

Blaine had asked if the two of them could watch Beth for a couple of hours, while they worked, at Kurt's house, and Kurt had been hesistant about it. Very hesitant. In fact, his initial reaction was 'no way in hell'. It would be worlds colliding in the worst way possible. Sure his dad wasn't going to be home, and Finn and Carole weren't moving in until after the wedding. But it would be... almost like a glimpse of what could have been. Of what he nearly had, but didn't. He would be seeing what it could be like to have a child (his child, but it was too much to think in those terms) in his house and he almost said no.

But then he'd said yes, as long as Blaine was sure Shelby was fine with it (and he was surprised that she was, if he were honest with himself) and now he was kind of freaking out because the doorbell had just rung. He checked his hair for the millionth time, before heading to the door and bracing himself.

"Hi," he opened the door, and plastered a wide smile on his face as Shelby and Blaine came in.

He tried to ignore the way his heart thudded in his chest, as Blaine, holding Beth on his hip, grinned at him.

"Hey," Blaine said.

"Hello Kurt." Shelby had her arms full on things, she leant forward and kissed Kurt's cheek quickly. "Where do you want this?" she asked.

"Oh um, just put it by the door there." He gestured vaguely. "Are you sure you're alright with this?" he asked.

She placed the bags down and faced him.

"Kurt, I trust you ok?"

"O-Ok." He nodded.

"Now, I have to go. So, you boys behave ok? You too sweetie," she smoothed down the hair on Beth's hair and gave her a kiss on the cheek, she let out a little squeal of joy. Shelby patted Blaine's shoulder. "I'll leave you to it then."

"See ya Shelbs."

She left and it was just the three of them.

"Right, so…" Kurt picked imaginary dirt from his nails. "Want to head into the living room?"

"Yeah, sure." Blaine readjusted Beth, who gripped to a chunk of his blazer with her tiny fist and followed Kurt, through the house to the living room. His eyes widened, it was like a wedding had exploded in the room.

There was fabric, everywhere, and piles of magazines with pictures of flowers, and table decorations that had been cut out strewn across the coffee table. It seemed that everything had a post-it note attached to it. What caught Blaine's eye the most though was the sewing machine set up in the corner, and what looked like dresses on hangers right by it.

"You can sew?" He asked surprised.

"Of course." Kurt dismissed, as though it were nothing. "Now, don't touch anything unless I tell you to. I have a system and I don't want it ruined."

"Uh, ok." Blaine said a little nervously, suddenly standing still. "Can I uh, is there somewhere to put Beth down? She's kind of heavy."

Kurt turned and faced Blaine (who really wished his stomach wouldn't suddenly plummet to his feet every time Kurt's eyes fell upon him).

"Oh, um… here," he started clearing the couch, until it was free of magazines, invoices and fabric samples.

Blaine moved to set Beth down.

"Wait, is it a good idea to just leave a child that can crawl on a couch like that?" Kurt asked.

"I… don't know."

"Maybe you should sit her on your lap and hold on to her. I don't want her getting hurt."

"I can't help you then."

"Can you still talk while sitting on the couch?" Kurt asked.

"Yeah…"

"Then that's fine. You're helping just by keeping me company."

Blaine sat down and set Beth on his lap. She reached up and started grabbing at his face, letting out little gargles of giggles. Kurt found his eyes glues to the scene because he, he suddenly realised how much he _wanted_ this. One day, when he was older (and a top fashion designer). He wanted a family, a daughter, or a son, he wanted to watch Blaine… no, not Blaine. Not Blaine. Just any guy. He couldn't have a future with Blaine. Blaine _wasn't_ going to be the father of any of his future children (it didn't help shake the image out of his head though).

At that moment he turned to look at Kurt, who quickly realised he'd been staring. They both blushed.

"So your dad's getting married?" Blaine asked quickly.

Blaine mostly just watched as Kurt adjusted hemlines and debated over flower arrangements ("_What do you think? Between these two? Because Carole was really set on this one, but__**this**__one is much richer in colour and matches the overall colour shceme far better. Do you agree?_") To which Blaine would just nod and agree because he couldn't bring himself to care too much about flowers and it seemed to make Kurt happy at any rate). Kurt also told him about his dad and Carole, and how Finn was going to be his step brother and while he was so excited to finally have a brother, he was a little worried over how Finn really felt about it.

He left out the part where he'd spent the better part of a year pining for Finn's attention, and that that was the reason Finn was probably still a little uncomfortable. Even though he was well and truly over any sort of cush he'd ever had on Finn (why did he think clueless and kind of stupid was cute? Charming and self-confdence was cute... more than cute, it was actually really _hot)._

Time passed relatively quickly, it was sort of amazing that the conversation was non-stop and they never ran out of things to talk about. Finally Kurt found himself leaning back on the couch next to Blaine. He'd accidentally mentoned the thing about the Power Ranger's, and was now explaining the complicated romantic lives the figurines had had (and realising as he did, that it strangely reflected the nature of relationships in Glee Club). Blaine laughed loudly.

"Only you Kurt, would have Power Ranger figurines, only to have them all get married to one another."

"I'll have you know, they also fought bad guys, in between wedding plans and filing for divorce papers. Surely you must have played with toys as a kid."

"Oh I did. I just didn't plan weddings for them."

"What did you do then?"

"Uh..." he went a little red.

"What?"

"Well, I'm the second youngest of four kids, right? And uh, so, my parents didn't exactly buy too many toys for me. So... I spent a lot of time playing with my older sister's dollhouse."

Kurt was silent for a moment.

"Really?" He asked. "I can't imagine you playing with a dollhouse. _I_ didn't even have a dollhouse as a child. Though, there was this one with a lovely powder blue exterior I really, _really_wanted. But I never got it. So what did you do?"

"Well, more often than not I'd set up this scenario of this lovely perfect, like Brady Bunch kind of perfect, family. And then one day everything would go horribly wrong as dinosaurs attacked the house and it was suddenly every person for themselves. They all usually died in the end. Sometimes I would switch it up and make it aliens, but I didn't have any alien toys, so they were dinosaur aliens. I wasn't the most creative kid."

"What are your siblings like anyway?" Kurt asked. Blaine rarely spoke about them, actually, he couldn't early remember them ever being brought up before.

Blane just shrugged.

"There's not much to say about them. Daniel, and Phillipa are both off at college. Daniel's twenty and Pip's nineteen. Then there's myself and Maddie, who's fourteen." He sighed a little. "I don't know, I'm kind of the odd one out. It's not like we don't get along, I'm just not as close to them. I mean, Dan and Pip are really tight and when we were younger they never wanted to include me in anything, so I guess I kind of gave up. And Maddie's always been really reserved and quiet, talking to her is really hard because she just... never says anything."

"How did they react to you coming out?"

"Pip, used to try and set me up with her friends sisters, she never really reacted, but started mentioning her friends younger brother's instead. I mean, I don't think any of them were actually gay. It was just her way of saying 'I'm cool with it' I guess. And, I don't know, Dan's always been kind of weird about it. He tries to hide it, but doesn't do as good a job as he thinks. And Maddie's just... Maddie. When I... well, when the bullying got really bad she came in once and hugged me and told me she was praying every day that the world would change it's view. It was... really sweet actually."

Kurt just nodded, taking it in. Realising suddenly, he actually didn't know that much about who Blaine was. He was about to ask if his siblings were as musically inclined as he was, but out of nowhere (or maybe it wasn't, and he'd been too focused on Blaine talking to notice) Beth started crying. A lot. Blaine looked panicked.

"What do I do?" He asked.

"I don't know. Why is she crying?"

"Let me activate my baby whisperer skills and find out."

"There's no need for sarcasm."

Beth let out a particularly high-pitched wail.

"Pass her to me Blaine."

"She's probably just hungry, or needs changing."

"And how are you going to work it out?"

"By using my phsycic powers."

"What?"

"I'll check her diaper, Blaine."

"Oh."

Blaine carefully handed Beth over to Kurt, who started making soft, comforting noises to try and sooth her. It wasn't that she needed changing, and he tried feeding her, but she didn't want anything. He settled with rocking her back and forth, trying to calm her down and get her to stop. The cried started to slowly become less and less. Blaine just watched, once again, unable to help but marvel at how natural it seemed for Kurt to handle the infant.

"Kurt?"

Kurt froze, he currently had a crying child in his arms and his dad was staring at him. Well, not at him exactly, but at the child in his arms and suddenly Kurt had no idea what to do. He hadn't counted on his dad being home early.

"Hi... Dad." he said.

"Hello," Burt nodded. "Care to explain our guests to me?"

"Uh, yeah, well, this is Blaine, he goes to Dalton."

"Hello, Mr Hummel." Blaine said politely with a smile, completely oblivious to the fact that Burt was about to meet his granddaughter for the first, and probably only, time.

"Nice to meet you Blaine, Kurt's told me about you."

Both teenage boys were suddenly blushing.

"He has?"

Burt just nodded and turned his attention back to Kurt, whose heart was suddenly hammering in his chest. He didn't know how he managed to get the next words out steadily.

"And this uh, this screaming bundle of joy here is Beth."

Burt nodded and stared at the girl in his son's arms. She had already calmed down to more of a whimper, he noticed her eyes, large and bright, a mix of blues and greens, it was such a distinct colour that if he'd ever doubted his sons confession before, he wouldn't anymore. The hair on her head was a dark blonde, with a little pink bow clipped into it. Even with a face still red, and tears, Burt thought she was beautiful.

"She's beautiful Kurt," he said, looking right at his son and meaning it.

"Isn't she?" Kurt said so softly, his voiced filled with a tone Burt hoped that he would get to hear one day, but never expected it to be while his son was seventeen. Fatherly pride, he realised.

The way Kurt looked at Beth was so... unexpected. Burt always imagined his son wouldn't know what to do with an infant, that he would hold a baby like a foreign object. But right here, right now, it was like he just knew the baby girl belonged in his arms. And Kurt looked... well, for the first time Burt wasn't seeing Kurt, the eight year old who held tea parties and scolded him for not raising his pinkie finger while he drank. He was seeing Kurt, the young adult who would be graduating high school in the blink of an eye. Who would soon be off to college and probably conquering the world in a way no one could fathom. Kurt who would one day, make a great husband, who would one day (hopefully) get to have a child of his own that he didn't have to watch grow up from a distance.

"Want to meet her dad?" Kurt asked.

"Oh, uh, is that alright?"

"Yeah, it's ok."

Kurt stood up, and gently handed Beth (who had now stopped crying) to his father. Burt, holding the little girl in is arms, suddenly found himself blinking back tears. How was it fair, that this was his granddaughter and he didn't have the chance to spoil her rotten? He couldn't find it in himself to be mad at Kurt, what was done was done. He couldn't see much beyond the child in his arms, looking up at him in wonder.

"I hope she's treated by the princess that she is." He said.

"Oh, she is." Kurt assured him.

Blaine watched the entire exchange confused. He had the sudden feeling that he was missing vital information. He just had no idea what it was. And he left with that feeling still sitting at the pit of his stomach. He just couldn't place it.

**x x x **

When Blaine had left Kurt had very quickly disappeared to his room. His dad seeing Beth wasn't at all what he had planned on. But Burt was onto him quickly, calling Kurt back upstairs, not long after. Kurt took a deep breath and went upstairs.

"You wanted something?' Kurt stood at the end of the lounge awkwardly. Burt turned to him and gestured to the spare seat on the lounge.

"Sit down."

He did so obediently.

"So… what is it?" he asked hesitantly. Kurt could feel the pounding on his heart and he didn't know why he was so nervous. But Burt was looking at him with a face that he was sure lead to nothing good.

"Carole and I are getting married this weekend."

"I know." He frowned. So far the conversation wasn't going in the direction he'd expected.

"Now, I want you to know, your call is final on this. But very soon Carole and Finn will be a part of our family. And I really think we should tell them."

"Tell them _what_?" Kurt knew, of course he knew. He just, hoped that maybe there was the tiniest, slightest chance that his dad was talking about something else. Because right now it was seeming like his dad had missed the bit of information where Beth had been Quinn's daughter. Quinn, the girl Finn dated for a long time. The girl Finn had, for month, believed he'd gotten pregnant. And there was no telling Finn the truth. Ever.

"About Beth.'"

"No."

"Kurt, listen to me,"

"No, Dad, listen to _me_, for months, and I mean months, Finn thought she was his. And that fact that his girlfriend cheated on him is still a sore point. She isn't spoken about. Not by Finn, not by Puck, not by Rachel, and especially not by Quinn. It's over and done with, in the past and forgotten. I'm not opening wounds by telling Finn that I was the one who slept with Quinn. Because I'm not proud of that. Not at all. In fact, it's probably the one thing I've ever done I wish all the time I could take back. I just... it's not the way you want this new family to start, with Finn absolutely hating me, is it? Because he will. You remember last time they moved in with us? It'd be like… but so much worse. I'm not telling them."

"I want you to think about it, ok? I'm leaving the decision up to you, but, I don't think you should dismiss the idea so quickly."

Kurt nodded. "Ok Dad, but I doubt I'll change my mind."


	12. Dalton

**A/N: I have no excuses… I'm just really really sorry. Part of what took so long though is that I'm just not a fan of this chapter. I struggled with it _a lot _and I'm still not that happy with it. It just feel… disjointed I guess. I wish I could have come back with something killer. Unfortunately not. **

**On the brighter side I have this story pretty much mapped out til the end, and half of the next chapter already written and I'm on a bit of a roll with it. So hopefully it doesn't take too long. **

**There's a lot more drama coming up ;) I can promise you that. It's fun.**

**I'd also like to thank _every single person _who has reviewed. Even those who reviewed while I hadn't updated in forever. You guys kept me motived to keep going and to push through this killer chapter. And I love you :) **

* * *

"I heard a rumour." Jeff sang as he wedged himself between Blaine and Nick at the lunch table. There were already too many of them as the small round table, but somehow the blonde boy perched himself on both boys seats.

"I was not making out with Cathy." Nick said sourly. "It's not my fault the girl is obsessed with me. I honestly want nothing to do with her."

"Oh really? Why not, she's hot." Jeff sad looking surprised.

"I just... she keeps stalking me on facebook, commenting on everything I do and post, it's creepy."

"Well, no one would judge you if you went for it, even Blaine admits she's alright."

"If I were straight... I wouldn't be saying no to her." Blaine shrugged.

"But anyway, that's not what I was talking about."

"Oh... then what rumour did you hear?"

"There's fresh blood coming to Dalton." Jeff grinned.

"What? But it's November." Wes said with a frown. "It's highly unusual for there to be a transfer this late in the semester."

Jeff shrugged. "Apparently he's a special case. He's in his junior year." he tuned to Nick. "I think we should make it our responsibility to teach him all things Dalton."

"Where did you hear about him?" Blaine asked.

"Admin office."

"Why were you there?" Wes asked sharply.

"Chill, Wes, I wasn't in trouble."

"Good. Because this close to sectionals, if you get suspended from the Warblers, again, everything will be thrown off and I can't deal with that."

"That was one time last year."

"We lost sectionals because of it."

"No. We lost sectionals because-"

"Why were you in the admin office?" Nick asked, quickly interrupting the impending argument. Jeff stopped and turned to Nick, his cheeks flushing a little red.

"... no reason."

"Yeah? Just thought you'd hang out there for a little while for fun?"

"I may have offered to help Miss Ryan with some heavy boxes."

"Oh..." Came the collective sound of understanding from all the Warblers at the table.

"Yeah," Jeff nodded, flicking his fringe out of his eyes. "Anyway, apparently he starts on Monday."

"Just… be nice to him." Blaine said. "You don't know what circumstances have brought him here and… just don't be so, well, you."

"Blaine, I don't know what you're implying but I'm a lovely person and everyone loves me." Jeff said.

**x x x**

Kurt tugged on his tie one final time. It felt too tight, too restricting for school. As he stared back at his red and navy clad self in the mirror he could see thousands of ways to modify the uniform, to make it more... well... Kurt. But Dalton was strict on its dress code and had quickly informed him that such modifications would be a quick way to get detention. Which he didn't think would be a good start to being at the school.

He may have tailored the blazer a little, and gone for grey slacks a little higher quality than the ones recommended, but otherwise, he was going to blend right into the sea of navy and red at Dalton. He wasn't sure if that was going to suit him. But, better blending in than being shoved into lockers by Karofsky.

Right?

He didn't _need _fashion to stand out. Much.

He wasn't sure why he hadn't just come out straight away and told Blaine about the move. Several times he'd typed out a text message, telling Blaine that he'd transferred and would be starting school at Dalton on Monday. But he'd never been able to go through with sending it. Truthfully, he feared how Blaine would react to the news. If it was bad, Kurt knew he would back out of transferring altogether. And he sort of really wanted to go to Dalton, if only to experience a life without bullying for a year and a half.

There was a knock on his door.

"Are you ready?"

Kurt looked over to Burt and nodded. He gave his tie one final tug before following him out of his room and to the car. It was still early but Carole was up and gave him a goodbye, good luck, and a quick kiss on the cheek. Finn was still soundly asleep (Kurt had actually heard the heavy snores from his room) but had told him good luck the night before.

The drive to Dalton was an hour and a half away, but he didn't want to leave Lima to board, he was already going to miss his friends enough. And he didn't want to leave his new family just yet. They'd offered him a room to board in, but his dad and Carole had already sacrificed enough to pay for tuition at Dalton, he wasn't making them pay more just for the convenience of an extra hours sleep in.

... Not to mention in Lima he was just that bit closer to Beth.

The drive seemed to take forever, and once they were there, the school seemed to be even bigger, and more intimidating than he remembered.

"Wow." Burt said as he pulled into a car park. "Fancy."

"I think it grew." Kurt muttered as he stared up at the large stone building. In fact, he was pretty sure it had. He remembered Dalton being a huge, intimidating school, but it seemed to have doubled since the last time he saw it. Either way, he suddenly felt tiny compared to the school.

"No kidding."

Kurt took a deep breath. "Ok, let's do this."

The woman working at the reception desk was young, and was quite focused on the computer screen in front of her. She didn't notice Kurt and his dad until Burt cleared his throat. She jumped.

"Oh, sorry. Can I help you?" she put on a smile

"Yeah, it's my first day... I'm Kurt Hummel?"

"Oh! Yeah, right. Take a seat, Phil- I mean Mr Matthews will be with you in a second."

They took their seats and waited in the silent office for the teacher to arrive. Ten minutes later a tall, middle-aged man came out, followed by a scrawny boy dressed in uniform.

"Kurt Hummel?" he asked, approaching them. Both Kurt and Burt stood up.

"Yes sir." Kurt said. He shook both their hands.

"I'm Mr Matthews, the eleventh grade Dean. Welcome to Dalton, Kurt. If you ever need help you can come and see me. For now, I've arranged for Dylan here to show you around."

The tall scrawny boy, with messy bed hair nodded. "Dylan Rafter. Pleasure to meet you."

"Same." Kurt nodded. Though it wasn't really that much of a pleasure, in his initial meeting he'd mentioned that he'd known Blaine Anderson. Why hadn't they gotten him?

"We paired you with someone with a similar class schedule to you. So Dylan here can show you where all your classes are, and where everything you need is."

Kurt nodded. "Thanks."

"Right." Mr Matthews nodded. "I think that's everything. Kurt, I'll arrange a meeting with you next week to see how you're settling in, but feel free to come and see me anytime." He turned to Burt. "Mr Hummel, your son is in safe hands with us."

"Thank you." Burt nodded before he turned to Kurt. "Be safe Kurt. I'll see you tonight." he put a hand on Kurt's shoulder briefly.

"Thanks Dad."

Burt nodded, then turned and left.

"Alright, second period is about to start, so I'll leave you boys to it." Mr Matthews nodded and left them.

Dylan smiled brightly. "We have French."

"Ok. Let's go then." Kurt said.

"Welcome to Dalton, Kurt."

**x x x**

"Jeff! Stop moving. You're rocking the whole table!" Nick exclaimed as he spilt fried rice over himself. Again.

"Sorry. I'm just anxious for the new kid."

"Oh, yeah." Blaine suddenly remembered the conversation they'd had on Friday. "Anyone seen him?"

"Yeah, he was in my first two classes. French and History. They've got Rafter showing him around. I'm waiting til he gets here so we can save him."

"Rafter? Ouch, poor kid." David shook his head. "He could have already left."

"What was he like?" Blaine asked.

"No hitting on the new kid!" Jeff said. "No Blaine. Down."

"That wasn't what I was implying."

"Oh, well, at first he looked scared to death, and then I started talking to him... he's adorable. Reminds me of Pinocchio a little, actually. In looks, I mean, not in a… I think he's a wooden puppet way. He said he was from Lima."

"Lima?" Blaine asked, his interested suddenly peaking. "What's his name?"

"Kurt. Did I not mention that already?"

"No, you didn't." David said.

"Kurt? Hummel?" Blaine asked. Kurt was... at Dalton. Surely not. Surely he'd have mentioned something as huge as switching schools. Not just switching schools, but switching to _his_school. How many Kurt's were there in Lima anyway? It was a reasonably common name wasn't it? Not that Blaine had ever come across another Kurt as it were...

"Yeah. Woah, are you a mind reader Blaine?"

"No, he's not you idiot." David said. "Kurt is the guy who came and spied on us."

"Oh! Oh... that's why he looked familiar." Jeff said. Then he clapped his hands over his mouth. "Is this the same Kurt, Blaine's been pining over?"

"No. I'm not..." Blaine trailed off as he caught sight of coiffed hair and blue eyes at the entrance to the lunchroom. He stood up; ignoring Jeff's questioning look and quickly approached the boy, weaving his way through people, before anyone else could. "Kurt."

Kurt gave him a sheepish look and shrugged. "Surprise?" he said, a little unsurely.

"What are you doing here? Blaine asked. But before he could give Kurt a chance to answer he engulfed the boy in a hug, wrapping his arms around him securely and holding him tight. It didn't go past him the way Kurt stiffened and didn't move to return the hug.

"Blaine, people are watching."

"What? Oh..." He pulled away, realising the boy probably didn't want him to be practically throwing himself at him and invading his personal space like that. Blaine looked at Kurt, taking in the navy and red blazer and tie, grey slacks, and black, shiny shoes. "You're really at Dalton now?"

"Yep."

Blaine suddenly couldn't help the grin that spread across his face. "Come on, I'll introduce you to everyone." He grabbed Kurt's hand, quickly ignoring the little thrill the contact sent up his arm and pulled Kurt over to the table he and some of the Warbler's usually sat at. "I can't believe you're actually here."

"Yeah..." Kurt managed. He was confused. He'd expected an interrogation from Blaine about the why's and how's at the very least. Not... 'Quick, meet my friends'. He briefly wondered if maybe Shelby had told him, but it seemed unlikely. He had seemed to be genuinely surprised when he'd seen him.

"Warblers." Blaine said loudly. "I'd like to introduce you all to-"

"Kurt!" Jeff exclaimed. "Sit next to me. Nick, move."

"But-"

"Oh, just do it. You've sat next to me everyday since kindergarten. Once won't kill you."

"It might kill him." Trent muttered.

Kurt glanced at Blaine, who nodded enthusiastically, so he sat down while Nick moved begrudgingly. Blaine took the seat next to him. The table was squashed as it were and Kurt found himself pressed up against both boys. It was strange... not that he didn't absolutely enjoy being so close to Blaine. But that... well he would never be in such a situation at McKinley. Guys wouldn't get within three feet of him for fear of 'catching the gay'.

"So, you didn't mention you were Blaine's Kurt in French." Jeff said.

"I... what?" he spluttered. Blaine's Kurt? Since when was he Blaine's Kurt...

It sounded kind of nice. Being Blaine's.

You know, if that was a thought path he was able to venture down...

Which it wasn't.

"Are you going to join the Warblers?" Jeff asked, completely ignoring the way Kurt was stuttering over his words, and blushing madly from the previous statement.

"Well, with-"

"Please join? Weren't you part of your school's Glee club? You know, part of the whole 'spying' thing?"

"Yes, but I-"

"Then you should."

"Jeff, this close to sectionals..." Wes started.

"How about you hear Kurt sing first?" Blaine suggested. "Then make a decision."

Kurt smiled. "I would love to audition. It's fairer that way. To everyone." Except whoever's solo's I steal, he added silently. Surely there couldn't be that many, if any, counter-tenors at this school, all boys' school or not.

Wes nodded. "It's not audition time, but considering your circumstances, I think it's only fair we give you a chance. Tomorrow afternoon at our meeting."

Kurt nodded. "Tomorrow it is."

As the bell for the end of lunch rang, he realised with a sinking feeling that it meant he wouldn't be able to baby sit.

**x x x**

"I can't believe Kurt left right before sectionals." Rachel slumped back in her seat and sighed. "The Warblers have such an advantage now."

"So he's definitely joined them then?" Tina asked.

"Of course he has, Blaine's a Warbler." Mercedes interjected, with a hint of bitterness in her voice.

"Guys, it's not Kurt's fault any of this happened. Sure, it sucks that he's gone, but we failed to notice anything was wrong until it was too late. It's better that he's somewhere where he feels safe." Quinn said. "We should be thinking about what's best for Kurt."

"Oh, yeah... like you care at all about what happens to Kurt." Puck snapped.

"Of course I do."

"Really? Because it sure doesn't seem like it."

"What are you talking about?"

"Last year. You didn't care much about him then did you?" Puck was satisfied to see a hint of fear in her eyes as she processed his words.

"I... I don't know what you mean. If you're talking about getting him to help me have Finn see Rachel as utterly repulsive-"

"You did what?" Finn exclaimed.

"No, that's not what I'm talking about. I mean everything else." He looked her directly in the eyes. "I know Quinn, so don't go and pretend like I have no idea what I'm talking about."

"Know what?"

"That you treated him like dirt last year when he hardly deserved it."

"Oh and you throwing him into dumpsters was you treating him like a prince was it?"

"Hey, that was me just abiding by the social food chain. I _had _to throw him into dumpsters. You shouldn't have ignored him all year."

"Aside from us both being in Glee club I had no reason to talk to him."

"That's not the truth Quinn, and you damn well know it." Puck stormed out of the room. It took about three seconds for Quinn to follow him out, leaving the rest of the club stunned.

"Um, what just happened?" Finn asked.

"Who cares about their quarrel? We still haven't decided what songs I'm going to sing at sectionals." Rachel said. "Especially now that I'll be singing three solo's instead of two."

**x x x**

"Puckerman! Don't you dare take one step further." Quinn ran after him down he empty corridor of the school.

He turned around. "What? I'm kind of sick of talking to you."

"What were you talking about?" she asked. "With... the stuff about Kurt."

"Oh, just that I know he's your baby daddy." Puck spat out at her.

The colour drained from her face. "H-How?"

Puck shrugged. "Doesn't matter, does it? You treated him like dirt last year, he didn't deserve it."

"Since when do you care about Kurt?"

"Finn's my bro ok? We're not tight like we used to be, but he's still my bro. And Kurt's his bro. Like, actually now since their parents are married and stuff. So by default I have to care about Kurt, because unlike you, family is important to me."

"You don't know anything about-"

"About you? About what is was like last year? There's nothing you can say to justify what you did."

"Please, if anything I did him a favour. His life would have been hell if people had known the gay kid knocked me up. I helped him."

"No, your life would have been hell... more than it was. Ever stopped to think maybe he wouldn't have been forced out of the school if people had known?"

"What happened to Kurt isn't my fault. And he seemed perfectly happy last year anyway. Stop acting like I'm a horrible person." Quinn glared at him in the icy gaze she'd perfected over the years before storming off to the girl's bathroom.

It wasn't her fault. What had she been expected to do? She was sixteen years old and pregnant. She did what she could at the time. Puck was wrong. So wrong. Both she had Kurt had been losers.

**x x x**

"So, how do you like Dalton?" Blaine asked.

Kurt had messaged Burt, saying Blaine was happy to drive him home and so he didn't need to worry about picking him up (starting from the next day Kurt was going to be driving himself anyway). On the way Blaine had wanted to show Kurt a coffee shop, about halfway between Lima and Dalton, called the Lima Bean, apparently it was fairly popular for Dalton students to go to after school. The two of them sat in a more secluded corner to talk.

He shrugged at Blaine's question. "It's... different."

"Yeah, it really is."

"There's just less... less." Kurt gestured vaguely. "You know? McKinley is just so full on all the time, it's always chaotic and loud and dramatic. Dalton is... well, not."

"Do you mind if I ask what happened? What prompted the sudden switch?"

Kurt avoided his gaze, staring at the table instead. "Karofsky came back." he said quietly. "I... didn't want to spend my school days living n fear of every corner."

"Kurt," Blaine reached out and grabbed his hand from across the table, as soon as Kurt's gaze snapped up towards him he realised what he'd done and pulled away quickly, hoping his blush wasn't too obvious. "You don't need to be ashamed, especially not in front of me. I know what it's like."

"I still feel like I admitted defeat." Kurt said. "He got what he wanted. Me out of that school."

"Who cares? You're getting a whole lot more." Blaine said. "And it's way better than what he's getting."

"What exactly am I getting?" Kurt asked. "I'm at a school over an hour away, I only get to see my friends on weekends, and I have to wear this uniform. Which, I will admit isn't the tackiest I've ever seen, but it's still a uniform and squashes my ability to express myself."

Blaine forced a smile. "The Warblers are great guys. And you get to have them as friends. You're getting an opportunity to not live in fear every corner you turn. And... you get to see me every day?" he said the last part with an exaggerated cocky grin.

Kurt shook his head. "What was I thinking? Your face, every single day?"

"I'm wounded Kurt, absolutely shattered." Blaine clutched at his heart. "It hurts right here."

Kurt gave him a mischievous smile and sipped at his coffee.

"I am grateful though, that I don't have to be scared, and that despite my history, the warblers are letting me audition. There's no way Rachel Berry would let that happen."

"She sounds terrifying." Blaine said. "You know... from what you've told me of her. I don't know how much I'd like to meet her."

Kurt almost wanted to laugh at that... almost. Rachel's biological mother was Blaine's aunt, something he didn't feel would be appropriate to reveal to his friend. Instead he shrugged.

"She's not so bad. Just... fiercely competitive and it clouds her judgement sometimes. But yes, she can sometimes be terrifying."

"Oh, speaking of your audition, I can't believe I forgot!" Blaine exclaimed.

"What?"

"Wes decided he wanted to push it forward to tomorrow's lunch meeting. Something about looking over the schedule and he can't fit it in for the afternoon."

"Oh... That's ok... I can manage.. Do you think it would be alright though if tomorrow afternoon I babysat one final time?" he said.

"Yeah... I mean, I'll check, but I'm sure it will be fine." Blaine gave him an odd look. "I'm assuming you won't baby sit anymore, with rehearsals being on Tuesday's."

Kurt nodded. "I'll work something out with Shelby, I've always got time to spare for her, it's just a matter of when."

"You're really attached to her, aren't you?"

Kurt wondered sometimes, how Blaine was able to look into the face of his cousin and then his own and not see the resemblance. At all. Sometimes when he looked at Beth all he saw was a miniature version of himself (other times, at certain angles, or under different light, it was a baby Quinn he was looking at). Even Shelby had mentioned it on occasion, how much of a resemblance there was. He didn't know how Blaine didn't see it. He figured, that most likely, Blaine just wasn't looking for it.

"Yeah... the kid has grown on me I guess." he said. He looked directly at Blaine. Sometimes he just wanted to blurt it out. To have everything out in the open and to have things just happen however they were to happen. And sometimes he just wanted Blaine to work it out, to drop hints until he did. But he knew, just knew, Blaine wouldn't deal with it, and wouldn't want anything to do with him if he found out. And he'd grown attached to Blaine. Really attached.

... it wasn't a crush.

Not... yet, anyway.

But still, he liked Blaine in his life. A lot. And he'd be happier for Blaine to never know, if it meant he stayed in his life for a really long time.

"So what song do you think you'll sing?" Blaine asked, suddenly changing the subject.

"I don't know yet." Kurt gave an inward sigh, thankful for the topic to have changed. "Something that showcases my range though."

"And what is your range?"

"I'm a counter-tenor."

"Woah, really?" Blaine asked. "I guessed you could sing high, but if you have a true counter-tenor range, believe me you're in. Wes and David will be thrilled. You'll be their new favourite... You'll replace me."

"Could anyone replace you though? You have all the qualities of a leading man."

If Kurt wasn't mistaken, Blaine's cheeks coloured a little at the compliment.

"You have some of those qualities yourself." he mumbled.

"Of course I do." Kurt said, trying to ignore the way his face heated up. "We should get going though, Dad's expecting me home soon."

"Oh right, of course, let's head off."

The drive back was spent with meaningless banter between the two of them. Joking, and laughing, and singing along loudly to the radio. And several times Kurt chanced a glance at Blaine's glowing face and realised that, yeah, he really did want this boy in his life for a long time.


	13. Sectionals

**A/N: Nope, you guys aren't seeing things… I'm really updating this quickly :) yayayayayay! **

**Thanks for the reviews! I pretty much wasn't expecting to get any at all, so it was really nice to get a bunch. Sorry I haven't replied I've been busy doing, uh… nothing. Well, writing, I suppose. But… I passed the 200 mark for this story! That kind of doesn't seem real. So thank you all _so much_. **

**Oh also; continuity error with the audition thing. I know. I suck. But I'd already written so much before I realised, and well… this is a Glee fanfic… and Glee is sometimes like 'meh, who needs continuity anyway!' so really, I'm just keeping true to the show ;)**

**Oh and lastly, I'm sorry for any mistakes, I was so excited to finish that a few things probably slipped by when editing because I'm simply too lazy to get a Beta. **

* * *

"Good afternoon Kur- you have a bird." Shelby stared at the tiny warbler in the brass cage Kurt held.

"Yes." Kurt sighed. "It's a Warbler tradition, apparently. I thought Beth might like to meet the latest addition to my, apparently, ever growing family."

"Of course she will. Don't the Warblers usually have rehearsal on Tuesday's though?"

"I was excused this week, I figured once you get back tonight we could sort something out?" he asked. "I'd really like to keep on baby sitting. That is, if you don't mind."

Shelby nodded. "Of course. Kurt, you're always welcome to be a part of her life. Always."

"Thank you." He smiled, wondering with slight amazement how someone like Shelby had ended up adopting Beth.

"Well, I have to go. I'll see you later."

"Bye." he said. "Have a good time."

Shelby gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and hurried out the door. Kurt glanced around the living room. Beth was set up on her blanket, surrounded by hundreds of toys, though she chose to suck on the ear of a worn rabbit. Kurt smiled at her.

"Hey Beth."

He set the cage down on the coffee table, the movement made Pavarotti chirp. Gently Kurt picked up Beth and moved over to the couch. He set her on his lap, she continued to clutch the rabbit, it's ear firmly in her mouth, but she stared curiously at the foreign cage.

"This is Pavarotti. He's a Warbler, just like your D- just like I am now."

At the sound of his voice Beth looked up at him with curious eyes.

"Don't worry, darling, you're still my number one."

As though she understood what he said she pulled the rabbits ear put of her mouth and made a gargling cooing noise. Kurt nodded.

"That's right. No one could ever replace you."

Next thing Kurt knew, Beth was tugging on his tie, and bringing it to her mouth.

"No, no!" Kurt ever so gently started to pry the tie out of her hands. She squealed and tugged on it again. "Beth, sweetie, I only have one tie and I need to wear it tomorrow." he finally successfully got it out of her hands, and quickly took it off, placing it on the coffee table. Beth reached her arms out towards the table; she squirmed around in Kurt's arms, trying to reach it. He kept a grip on her and laughed.

"The tie is not for playing with."

Eventually she gave up. He brought her blanket closer and sat down on the floor next to her, leaning his back against the and put on reruns of Friends to watch while she happily entertained herself.

Blaine arrived at about six, and Kurt hadn't really moved, except to feed Beth. But now she was in his arms, and he was still watching a marathon of Friends.

"How's my favourite cousin going?" Blaine asked as he kicked his shoes off and sat down on the couch next to Kurt.

"Getting sleepy." Kurt said. Her eyes had been getting droopy for the last half an hour.

Blaine kissed the top of her head. "But still as adorable as ever."

"Always." Kurt agreed.

Blaine looked up at Kurt for a moment, and he cautiously met his gaze. Blaine just smiled and sat back on the couch with a sigh.

"I saw that glee club was hard for you today, seeing your ideas shot down like that." He said with an apologetic look on his face.

Kurt sighed, the lunchtime Warbler's practice was the last thing he'd wanted to talk about it. He'd much rather just forget the whole thing ever happened and start fresh the next day. But, of course Blaine was going to bring it up.

"It's just a different energy in there, that's all. Not better or worse, just something I have to get used to."

Blaine nodded. "I guess I can understand that. But it's ok, you'll manage to, and as soon as you do you'll fit right in. Not that," Blaine hurried to correct himself. "You don't already, the guys think you're great. But you'll feel more at home as soon as you adjust."

"Right." Kurt said smiling. "I still have my audition to prepare for."

"Any ideas on what you're going to be singing now?"

"I've narrowed it down to a short list."

"Are you going to tell me what they are?"

"And ruin the surprise? I think not. But I don't think I ever thanked you for getting me the audition."

"Don't thank me, I honestly didn't do anything. It was all the council's doing. I only told them I thought it was a great idea and I'd let you know."

"Thank you anyway." He said again, and then looked down at the sleeping bundle in his arms. "I think it's about time this one was put in her crib properly."

Blaine watched as Kurt slowly stood up, and handled Beth with upmost care and couldn't help but smile at the sight. He handled Beth almost as though she were his own and Blaine couldn't help but think that if he was like that with the kid he babysat for, then just imagine what he'd be like with his own child. Kurt turned and caught his stare giving him a kind of confused smile back, before leaving the room and taking Beth to her nursery.

**x x x**

Kurt sunk low in the seat of his car with a hat secured down over his brow, and almost obscuring his eyes. He'd pulled up, hoping the place would be nearly empty. But it had somehow slipped his mind that the football team was training and Karofsky was still around. Part of him didn't want to be scared, and wanted to walk in, head held high, unafraid of anything Karofsky or the rest of the football team could say or do to him.

The rest of him knew there was no going anywhere until Karofsky was well and truly gone.

An hour had well and truly passed before he spotted Karofsky running across the parking lot. Kurt instinctively lowered himself further in his seat until the giant football player was driving away from the school. Once the car was completely out of sight, he took the opportunity to head into the school and find Rachel. He knew she'd be here, most likely in the auditorium, practising for sectionals. Rachel was nothing if not dedicated and predictable.

And sure enough, it was where he found her.

"Hey Rachel," he said.

Her head snapped up from the keyboard.

"If you're looking to get a leg up for sectionals, don't bother. The only solos I'll be getting are in my mind."

"No, that's not why I'm here."

"Oh." she said, looking back at the keyboard ready to start whatever song she had been playing again.

"I've been invited to audition for a solo with the Warblers." He told her, trying his best to remain calm about it and not squeal like a little girl. He didn't want her to think it was big deal to him.

"Why should I help you?" she asked. "You're our competition."

Kurt shrugged. He hadn't really had any other option if he were to be honest. He wanted advice from someone who wouldn't care if telling him no hurt his feelings. Finn would just say 'yeah, that's cool dude.' For whatever he sang. Mercedes would keep trying to talk about the latest gossip, or complain about how she never had any chance at solo's. And Blaine… well, he didn't know what Blaine would be like, but he hadn't been sure how to exactly approach Blaine about helping him. So Rachel had been his only option.

"Because even though we hate each other we've had our moments." he was being honest there. Rachel had pulled through for him when they were doing duets, and she'd been one of the only people to see how badly the bullying was hurting him. She wasn't a bad person, just a very focused and driven one, and was sometimes unable to see beyond her own goals. "And I could use your expertise. And no one knows how to kill a ballad quite like you. You are as brilliant and talented as you are irritating."

That, unfortunately, was true too. He could see her eyes light up as he told her she was brilliant, the comment about being irritating slid right by her.

"Considering that this might be my only chance to sing for a while, I can give you a couple of tips."

Kurt grinned, thankful it hadn't taken an hour of begging and pleading her to help him.

"So, what did you have in mind?"

"I've settled Celine Dion's classic, My Heart Will Go On." He placed the karaoke machine up on the piano. He thought his song choice was a good one. It was a classic ballad, one everyone knew, and it showed off his range in an outstanding manner. He knew he could kill the song and the solo would be his.

"Oh no, no."

"No?" No? She said no?

"You need something much more personal than that. I mean, this is about _you_. Do you ever fantasise about your own funeral?"

"No…" Kurt was starting think maybe Rachel wasn't the best choice for advice. Why was she suddenly talking about her funeral? She thought about her funeral? Who did that?

"I do. Finn throwing himself into the grave out of grief and all of the heartfelt speeches and regrets."

"That's insane."

"Clearly no one in the Glee club appreciates me. Is it so wrong for me to fantasise about them finally realising how amazing I am, but it being too late? And there's only one song that expresses those feelings." She moved to the karaoke machine."I'm sure that it's in here somewhere."

Kurt watched her as she quickly found the song. "Oh," he nodded. He understood now. Don't Cry For Me Argentina from Evita.

It was perfect. He understood now, what Rachel had been saying about making it personal. He could relate the lyrics back to McKinley, and New Directions and moving onto the Warblers. It was a song he could pour emotion into.

Rachel took the stage and started singing. Kurt had to admit, she really was brilliant. He voice rang out through the auditorium, with the kind of projection you could only be born with.

He was a little jealous.

When she finished and the music stopped she turned to him. "Your turn now."

"Uh, ok." He swallowed and stepped up to where she'd been standing on the stage while she moved back to the piano and nodded at him encouragingly.

When it started, he made sure to put everything he'd been feeling into what he was singing. He looked to Rachel after the last note of the song had died on his lips. She applauded.

"If you don't get a solo that council is deaf." she said, moving closer to him. "I'm going to hug you now." and before Kurt had a chance to respond she wrapped her arms around him. "I do miss you Kurt. It's not quite the same without you." she said as she pulled away.

"I miss you too. All of you."

"How is Dalton?"

"It's... different. I'm still getting used to it though. I'm sure there's always an adjustment when starting at a new school. Blaine has been a huge help."

Rachel smirked. "Speaking of Blaine... how is he?" she asked coyly.

"He's good." Kurt answered, trying not to give into her bait.

"How long until you guys are together?"

He took a deep breath. "Never. It will never happen."

"Why not? I thought he was gay, and he's cute. You should."

"He is. Gay, I mean. And cute too, I guess there's no denying that. But it just wouldn't... I can't."

Rachel frowned. "I don't see why not, but, ok. Are there any other cute gay boys at Dalton then?" she asked.

Kurt shrugged. "For all the jokes about it, there really aren't too many guys who are gay. But, I haven't even been there a week yet, give it time. Maybe I'll finally meet someone." Or at least, meet someone who wasn't the nephew of the woman who had adopted his daughter.

"I suppose that's true. Walk me out to the parking lot?" she asked, looping her arm through his before he had a chance to answer anyway.

"Sure."

**x x x**

Kurt felt like a nervous wreck when the bus to take them all to the sectionals competition rolled up in front of the school. They climbed on, the council checking off their names as they did so. When Kurt took his seat, Blaine quickly slid into the space next him grinning.

"Excited?" he asked.

"I don't know if that's the right word." He said honestly.

"Ok, Warblers!" Wes clapped his hands together standing up at the front of the bus, David and Thad just behind him. The noise quietened down immediately. "This sectionals performance is really important. Now, we don't have the same competition we had last year."

Blaine patted him on the shoulder and gave him an apologetic look. Kurt simply shrugged. He wasn't exactly taking Wes' words to heart.

"I want nothing but brilliance from you all. We've rehearsed long and hard for this so it shouldn't be an issue."

"But, most importantly," David stepped up. "We want you to have fun on stage performing. It's called _glee_ club for a reason."

"Ah, but that's not an invitation to go wild and freestyle on stage." Thad said quickly.

"Right, no, not at all." David nodded.

The competition was only a twenty-minute drive away, so they weren't on the bus for too long. Kurt chatted somewhat aimlessly with Blaine, and Nick and Jeff sitting behind them (though Jeff looked like he was about to be sick at any moment, having been given one of the solo's).

Once they got to the venue, Kurt wandered around, hoping to run into someone from McKinley to wish them good luck. It felt like Rachel was the only person he'd spoken to since transferring, at least in a personal manner. He'd exchanged a few text messages here and there with Mercedes and Tina, but things hadn't quite been the same with them, or anyone, since he'd left.

Then he heard Rachel's voice in the distance. There was no mistaking that loud, slightly obnoxious, annoying sound at all and he couldn't help but smile, as she yelled at the poor guy working at the counter of the venue.

"Carb loading?" he asked.

She rolled her eyes and sighed. "Puck got Lauren Zizes to fill you place and she won't go on unless she gets her damn candy!"

Kurt raised his eyebrows. Lauren Zizes? The huge, mean looking girl from the wrestling team? She was his replacement? He wasn't aware that she could sing. Or that she had any interest in singing…

"Hey, did you, uh, get your solo?" she asked, quickly changing the topic.

"Sadly, no."

"Oh wow… if you didn't get a solo then they must be really good. We are _doomed_."

Kurt could only nod in response because he had no idea what he supposed to say to that. And truthfully, he was torn. He wanted the Warblers to win because _he_ wanted to perform at regionals, and hopefully then nationals. But he couldn't help but feel like that was making him betray New Directions. Even though, surely it was normal want the team he was actually a part of now to win.

"Sorry, that was selfish of me." Rachel said. "What I meant to say was, wow, that… really sucks, and I'm sure you were really good."

"I was." Kurt said, he knew he hadn't messed anything up. "I mean, I think I was. Being in the Warblers has really made me question everything about myself." He sighed.

"Yeah… what has become of us Kurt?" She sighed, and took a seat, Kurt quickly followed her lead and sat down as well. "So, do you still miss us?" she asked.

He sighed. "I just… don't think the Warblers appreciate my individuality as much as you guys did." The uniform was evidence enough of that. He'd seen other privately funded schools compete in show choir competitions, and to his knowledge the Warblers were the only ones that performed in their uniform. They were all about being a unit, rather than letting the array of talent that they had shine. "And I can't help but think that I let you guys down."

"It's your life Kurt. I mean, you weren't safe at McKinley anymore, and we all get it."

Kurt smiled, it was probably one of the few times he'd seen Rachel being completely honest, and… not completely focused on herself and her own goals.

"How come you weren't this nice to me when I was your team mate?" he asked.

"Because, you were my only real competition."

He laughed and leant forward and hugged her. If Rachel was still willing to talk to him, and be friends with him then maybe not all hope was lost. Maybe he could still easily hang out with the New Direction guys.

"How's Finn?" He asked. "I fell bad, I haven't spoken to him since the wedding." Yeah, Finn was living in the same house as he was. But he was up so early, and got home so late, so far, their paths just didn't seem to cross much at all.

"I haven't talked to him much either. I found out that he and Santana were romantically involved and he lied to me about it."

"Wait, you didn't know about that?" _Everyone_ knew about it.

"Kurt," They were interrupted suddenly by Blaine.

Kurt froze as he looked between them, as though they somehow, just by looking at each other would _know_. He could see it. It wasn't that they looked startlingly alike. But there were enough similarities that he felt like it was obvious enough.

"Come on, we've got to go." Blaine said, resting his hand on Kurt's arm. He glanced at Rachel and Kurt held his breath. "Hey."

"Hey." She replied.

"I'll be there in a second." Kurt said.

"Ok, cool." Blaine smiled and walked off. Kurt let out the breath he'd been holding. He wasn't sure what he'd been expecting to happen. But nothing did.

"Are you sure you don't want him?" Rachel asked. "Because he is _really_ cute."

Kurt suppressed a shudder and mentally reminded himself that Rachel didn't know. She didn't know who he was related to. And she wouldn't.

"I know he is." He said, glancing the direction Blaine had gone. He was talking animatedly to Wes. "And… I'm not so sure anymore."

"Well I say, go for it. And good luck, today I mean. Even though we're totally going to kick your butt."

He raised his eyebrows. "We'll see about that. But good luck to you guys to. Tell everyone I said hi. I might try and see you all after the show?"

"Please do."

**x x x**

The tie had been probably the biggest surprise to Kurt, and for a moment had felt almost too good to be true. But it had been real and he was over the moon. After a quick moment of celebrating with the Warblers he excused himself to find his old Glee club to congratulate them, because they really deserved it. The singing was amazing, and Mike and Brittany's dancing had been quite simply out of this world. He found the room they'd been given and knocked gently on the door before opening it.

"Kurt!"

He wasn't sure who exclaimed his name first, because he was suddenly engulfed in a sea of people hugging him. When they finally all stepped back, he couldn't keep the grin off his face even if he tried.

"You were so good out there." Brittany smiled at him.

"Thanks Boo." He said.

"No really, you guys performed so well." Sam said honestly.

"You boys were deserving to tie with us." Mercedes said grinning.

"Well, of course if I have to share first place with anyone, I'm glad it was you guys." Kurt said. "Now I don't have to feel guilty about beating you."

"You never had a chance." Rachel said, but she was smiling at him playfully.

"Well, I'd really love to stay and chat, but I do have to go." He said regretfully. "Please tell me we can all catch up soon."

"Of course we can. We all really miss you Kurt." Tina said.

A round of goodbyes was given, and somehow Kurt found himself in the middle of a group hug again before he had to leave and head back to the Warblers bus.

"Kurt!" he turned around in the middle of the corridor at the sound of his name, but before he could properly register anything he was pulled into a nearby, small, dark, storage room. He let out a squeak and tried to pull away from whoever it was that had grabbed him, but their grip was iron strong.

"What do you think you're doing?" he screeched, still trying to get away from their hold on him. The worse possible things were going through his mind.

"Trying to talk to you."

He stopped his struggle instantly. "Quinn? What the _hell_?"

"I couldn't exactly talk to you out in public, could I?"

"Well you didn't need to drag me in here."

"Please, of course I did."

"Why? Are you trying to recreate something?" He asked with an eyebrow raised, not that she could see. "Because if I recall correctly last time we were in a confined space together it didn't end too well. And I'm pretty sure you should be asking my permission for something like, well, _that_first."

"No, you idiot." She hit him. "Anyway, we were both drunk, and upset, and I'd been feeling fat that day. I'm aware of what happened last time."

"Oh. Good. Because sometimes I genuinely think you've forgotten. Now, why am I here?" he demanded more so than actually asked.

"How the hell does Puck know?" she asked.

"Know what?"

"About... everything."

"Oh," Kurt's posture changed to be slightly more defensive than it had been, his arms folded across his chest, his hip jutting out to one side. "He… told you he knew?"

"Yes. And I'd like to know how. Only three people know the truth and Puck wasn't one of them."

"He was bound to work it out eventually Quinn. He knew the baby wasn't his."

"But did _you_tell him? Because I doubt he's been in contact with Shelby."

"He asked, and I couldn't lie about it."

Quinn's eyes narrowed even further as she glared at him, her stance suddenly becoming more face on, and with his eyes now better adjusted to the light Kurt could faintly make out what was unmistakeably her fists clenching at her sides. Angry Quinn was scary, he realised suddenly.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"I… don't understand what you mean."

"You're just telling anyone who asks you now? Who else knows about it?"

"What?"

"Who else have you told?" She asked slowly, inching forward, Kurt suddenly realised he was ever so slightly taller than her. When had that happened?

"I told my dad."

She sucked in a breath. "You did _what_?"

"He's my dad, he deserves to know he has a granddaughter out there in the world." He wasn't sorry for it. Beth _was_his daughter and he had the right to tell anyone who he felt necessary.

"Are you insane?" she hissed.

"Have you seen what you're wearing?" he countered, because if anyone was insane it was her, for wearing _that_. New Directions were sorely lost for costumes without him.

"Your dad is married to Finn's mom." Quinn ignored his remark.

"Oh what? How did that get by me? I had no idea about that. Why didn't anyone tell me?"

Quinn just rolled her eyes. "What's to stop him telling her, then her telling Finn? Finn has never been able to keep a secret... well, except for keeping the fact that he slept with Santana from Berry. But something like that… you _know_he'd let it slip to Rachel, who would tell everyone in three seconds flat."

"How did Rachel not know about that anyway?"

"Kurt..."

"I trust my dad ok?" He said honestly. "He won't tell her. I've asked him not to, several times and my dad keeps his word. Carole and Finn won't know. They never will."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Yes, I'm sure. Quinn, Finn was still your boyfriend when it happened… do you really think he'd just shrug it off? He'd never forgive me. Never. And I have to live with him for at least another year. If he finds out, it's not because I told him."

Quinn studied his face for what felt like an eternity. "Fine, I believe you." She said.

"Thank you."

"Congratulations on, well, tying with us."

He smiled. "Congratulations to you to."

"I'm going to leave first, wait ten minutes, then you can go."

* * *

**Little bit of insight there... **


	14. Mistletoe

**A/N: I'd like to take this moment to say I LOVE YOU GUYS! No, really… I'm actually a little gob smacked at how many reviews/alerts/hits this story has gotten. So, thank you so much! **

**I hope you enjoy this chapter, even thought it's a little shorter than usual. There's a little more light heartedness (at some points). And Warbler funtimes cause I love them so :).**

* * *

Kurt blinked, and suddenly Christmas was upon them. He had absolutely no idea where the time had gone. But the Warbler's had just finished their last rehearsal for the year (a run through of several Christmas carols for the final year assembly the following week) and were in the middle of celebratory party.

Kurt wasn't actually sure what they were celebrating exactly, and had a feeling Jeff and Nick had just wanted an excuse to be throwing streamers at everyone. Loud music was playing, and Wes and David were in the middle of a dance off, while several other Warblers cheered them on. Kurt sat on a couch watching with a smile on his face.

"Hot chocolate?"

He glanced over to find Blaine had sat himself beside him holding two cups of steaming hot chocolate.

"Thanks." He accepted it and sipped at it slowly. It wasn't cold inside by any means, but the warmth was still welcome.

"Are you enjoying yourself?"

Kurt nodded. "I am."

"Good, that's good."

Kurt bopped his head, and tapped his thigh with his free hand in time to the music playing, laughing along with everyone else as Wes tripped and nearly fell to ground in a pile. He straightened up with a bit of a blush and went back to the edge of the circle to let someone else take the floor. He was having a good time just watching when something hit him in the face.

He turned to a green plant being held up by an arm that disappeared behind the couch. Blaine seemed to have noticed as well and was staring at the plant with a frown… and quite possibly the faintest blush on his cheeks.

"Oh, look boys," Jeff said, coming over to them wrapping an arm around each of their shoulders. "Mistletoe. Whatever shall you do?"

Kurt knew he was full on blushing now. He carefully avoided Blaine's eyes.

"Jeff…" Blaine said. "Go find someone else to harass."

"But _everyone_ knows you want ki-" The rest of Jeff's sentence was cut off as Blaine launched himself over the back of the couch and tackled the blonde boy to the floor. "You know it's true!" He yelled. "I… no, don't, ow, Nick! Help me! Stop it. Stop!"

Kurt watched with amusement as Blaine began to tickle Jeff, who was yelling between his laughter. Nick stood up before behind the couch, dropping the sprig of mistletoe on a nearby table.

"Nick!" Jeff yelled. "Help me!"

Nick shook his head. "It was your idea. You need to suffer the consequences."

"But he-I… stop it… he's just as responsible!" Jeff flailed madly in a gesture that Kurt assumed was him trying to point in Nick's direction.

"Now we all know that's a lie." Kurt said glancing at Nick who was shaking his head madly. He hadn't been part of the group for very long, but had quickly realised most, if not all, the shenanigans the two got up were Jeff's idea.

The blonde boy finally gave up. "Fine, I surrender. I surrender."

Blaine stopped and sat up, he was now straddling Jeff's waist, who looked up at him and winked.

"This could be very suggestive." He said.

Blaine briefly thought back to the time he'd had quite a fierce crush on the boy beneath him and blushed slightly before slowly standing up. He tried to brush it off with a smirk.

"You wish Jeff." He said.

Jeff smirked back and winked at him, accepting Nick's hand as he was helped up off the floor. Blaine rolled his eyes, kind of amazed at how the small gesture didn't send his heart fluttering like it once would have. He looked over to Kurt who narrowed his eyes slightly and tilted his head. Blaine frowned, not too sure what Kurt was getting at and the boy jerked his head a little more in the direction of a small table… where the sprig of mistletoe now sat innocently.

Blaine bit the inside of his mouth to keep from smiling, his eyes suddenly lighting up with glee, and nodded as subtly as he could.

"I'll get you back for that one day." He said to Jeff.

"Yeah, right." Jeff scoffed. "That would require for you to be devious… which you are not."

"Maybe you're right but-"

"Oh look boys," Kurt said smirking, standing just behind Jeff and Nick, holding the mistletoe up above them. "Mistletoe. What_ever_ shall you do?"

Both Jeff and Nick glanced up and went bright red.

"Kurt is twice as devious than you could ever be."

"Touché Hummel." Jeff said. "You win."

"Nuh-uh…" Wes said, stepping forward. "I don't think you should get off so easily."

"What?" The colour from Nick's face drained completely.

"No one's going anywhere until you two kiss."

"For at _least_ ten seconds." David added.

There was loud hooting and catcalls from the other boys as Nick remained looking white as a ghost and Jeff so red he might spontaneously combust.

"You shouldn't start games you don't want to play." Kurt said with a teasing smile.

"Fine." Jeff growled out before he grabbed Nick's face in his hands and roughly brought their lips together.

Nick flailed his arms about for a second before finally resting his hands on Jeff's shoulders. As the kiss went on Jeff's grip became noticeably softer, one hand moved to the back of Nick's neck, while the other remained cupping his cheek.

They both pulled apart looking quite flushed. Jeff looked confused, while Nick looked… completely mortified.

"I have to um…" and he left the room.

Jeff was left standing there scratching the back of his neck, looking torn between running out of the room himself and trying to act like nothing had just happened.

Blaine put a hand on Kurt's shoulder to get him to look at him. When Kurt did turn his head Blaine held up one hand and two high fived quietly to each other.

"Couldn't have done a better job myself." Blaine grinned.

"You're welcome."

**x x x**

Kurt pulled his car up in front of a small, two storey white house. He shut off the ignition and sighed.

Was this going to be a smart move?

There was no way to tell.

He glanced at the small box, wrapped neatly in red paper with a gold bow sitting on the passenger seat next to him. He had to do this.

Before he could change his mind again, Kurt grabbed he gift and got out of the car. He knocked on the door and waited.

A thin blonde woman answered the door. Her hair framed her face, which looked worn and tired, though it was obvious she was beautiful, and Kurt knew without a doubt she was Quinn's mother. The resemblance was uncanny.

He cleared his throat. "Um, hi. I'm Kurt Hummel, I'm a, uh, friend of Quinn's."

The woman smiled. "Come on in Kurt. Quinn's in her room, just up the stairs and first door on your left."

"Oh, um... ok." Kurt was a little stunned that she would just let him go up o Quinn's room... if she had any idea there was no way she would have so willingly let him go up there.

He knocked on the door, and five seconds later she opened it.

Kurt had never seen Quinn look so casual. She was in red sweatpants and a white, baggy jumper. Her hair was loose and damp, hanging at her shoulders and she had no makeup on. It wasn't fair that she still looked stunning. She stared at him blankly for a moment.

"Kurt?"

"Hi."

"What are you doing here?" she asked him.

He shrugged. "I... have something I want to give you."

Quinn sighed and opened her door further. He took that as her invitation to come in and stepped inside her room. He'd had no idea what he'd been expecting Quinn's room to look like, but... it was bland. There was nothing personalising it whatsoever. No photo's, no little trinkets collected through the years... everything was very polished; whites and greys filled the room. He bit his lip, but didn't comment.

"So?" she asked. "What is it?"

"Oh, um..." he held the small box out to her. "Merry Christmas."

Quinn stared at him, then back up at him. "Why are you giving me a present?"

"I wasn't going to. But then I... I stumbled across this and I just had to."

She hesitantly took it and sat down on her bed, opening it slowly. Kurt watched with bated breath. He had no idea how she was going to react. If she was going to yell at him, or cry, or... not do anything and dismiss him. When she oepened the box, she gasped.

"Kurt..."

"It opens."

She pulled the heart shaped, gold locket from the box and held it in her hand, looking closely at the embossed design, before prying it open.

The photo Kurt had put in there was one of his favourites. Beth was looking at the camera with a huge, toothless grin on her face. Her sea eyes shone with joy and every time he looked at it he could practically hear her giggle. He watched as Quinn touched the photo delicately, almost as if she were hoping she could feel Beth through the paper.

"It's my favourite one of her," he said. "I thought that you should have a copy."

"She even better than I pictured." She said quietly.

Kurt slowly sat down on the bed facing Quinn, who looked up at him, her eyes were filled with unshed tears.

"How can you stand it?" she asked.

"Stand what?"

"Seeing her, holding her... being so close to her, while knowing she can never truly be yours?"

"It gets easier." he said, and shrugged. "I don't know... I think about the life she's going to have, and the one she could have had... and... the opportunities she has now are far greater than what they would have been."

"I know... I know that."

Kurt nodded, but didn't know what else to say.

"I dream about her sometimes."

He looked at her.

"A little girl with blonde pigtails, calling me mom, begging to be picked up and carried. Laughing and giggling."

Kurt nodded.

"And every time I wake up from one of those dreams I regret it."

"Regret what?"

"Letting her go."

"Oh."

"But what could I offer her? She deserves so much more than some Lima Loser Mom who got pregnant at sixteen. She deserves more than living on minimum wage, never having a chance to go to a top college because her family doesn't have the money. She just... she deserves more than I could have given her."

Kurt reached out and took Quinn's hand in his. "She's _getting_ more. She's going to have a life where every opportunity is available to her. But there's nothing wrong with missing her either. You're not a bad person for it Quinn."

She smiled. "I'm really sorry for what happened at sectionals. I was just..."

"Being the psychotic bitch we all know you can be?" he tried.

"I... no. What? I'm not..."

"Yes you are." he said. "Well, not all the time. But you can be."

She sighed. "It's the only way to survive in that school."

"You could always just transfer." he said.

"Dalton's all boys though." she sighed.

"I can tell you now, most of those boys wouldn't mind at all if you were in their classes." he smirked at her.

"I can imagine they'd be a little starved for the company of girls. But, what I'm trying to say is that, I am sorry for yelling at you like I did. I just... I freaked out and, became a psychotic bitch." she said, smiling a little at her last words.

"It's alright," he said. "Unfortunately I've experienced much worse."

"Quinn?" her mother was suddenly standing in the doorway. "Is your friend staying for diner?"

"Um," she looked at Kurt who shook his head.

"No, I told my dad I'd be home. I should probably get going anyway." he jumped up off the bed. "Thanks for letting me over though."

Quinn walked him down the stairs and to the door. Just before he left he stopped.

"If you ever want to... know more, or, meet her or anything, just um... don't be a stranger."

"I won't." she said, and then unexpectedly threw her arms around him tightly. "Thank you."

"Anytime Quinn."

**x x x **

It was a few days later and when Kurt had finally gotten home (after the weirdest shopping trip of his life) he struggled to keep the smile off his face. He'd re-lived singing with Blaine several times already in his mind, not wanting to forget a second of it.

There had been a moment. Kurt couldn't explain it, and he wasn't even going to try to. But at one point in the song Blaine had leant over the couch and looked right in his eyes as he sang and Kurt's stomach had somersaulted all over the place.

He'd tried so hard…

Been _so_ careful guarding his heart and had denied it to himself more than was probably healthy but he couldn't any longer.

He was in love with Blaine.

Not a small, harmless crush. But… head over heels, he'd marry the boy tomorrow if he could, in love.

And that revelation, while exhilarating, was not good. At all.

He walked into the house, ready to grab a quick snack and head off upstairs to start his moisturising routine when in the kitchen he found Finn leaning across the kitchen counter, resting his chin against his fists staring at the cage when he returned from a quick trip to the bathroom. He watched him for a moment with mild curiosity.

"Finn?" he asked.

"Yeah?" he didn't look away from the cage.

"What are you doing?"

"Do you think animals can read our minds?"

Kurt raised his eyebrows. Finn had said some fairly idiotic things in his lifetime but this…

And he'd actually had a crush on Finn in the past?

"No. They can't."

"But how would we know?"

"I think we'd have figured it out by now if they could." Why was this conversation even happening?

"I still think she knows more than she's letting on." Finn said, standing upright, but not looking away from the cage.

"She?"

He gestured to the cage.

"Finn, Pavarotti's a boy."

"But, she's… it's fluffy, and kind of cute."

"So?"

"So… boys aren't fluffy. Or cute."

Kurt didn't bother to point how that he begged to differ on the cute thing and instead just rolled his eyes.

"Where'd you get her… him, I mean, from anyway?"

"It's apparently a Warbler tradition for all new members to be given a real warbler." Kurt said, making his way over to the other side of the kitchen. "Did you want some milk?"

"Yeah sure, thanks dude." Finn grinned enthusiastically and Kurt returned it. He'd transferred right after the wedding, it felt like since they'd all moved in together, he and Finn had barely seen each other, let alone had any time to talk. As bizarre as the conversation had been… he still quite liked it. He wondered if this was what it was like to have a real brother.

"They really give you a pet when you join?" he asked.

"Yeah, they really do."

"That's… weird."

Kurt nodded in agreement and pulled the mug of milk from the microwave and put it in front of Finn.

"Um… what is that?"

"Warm milk." He said.

"Uh…" Finn looked at the mug as though it were a completely foreign object to him.

"Just drink it. You'll like it."

"If you say so…"

"So…" Kurt leant against the opposite side of the counter facing Finn. "How are things at McKinley?"

"Uh… good, I guess."

"Really? There's no drama?" He found that hard believe because, well, there was always drama.

"Well, Rachel and I kind of, broke up."

"What? When?"

"Tonight." Finn sighed.

"I can't… I mean… are you ok?"

Finn shrugged. "I fine. Or at least… I will be. I just… I'm _sick_ of people lying, and cheating and not giving a crap about anyone else's feelings while they do it." He looked at Kurt. "I swear you're like, the one person who hasn't stabbed me in the back."

Kurt didn't say anything. His mind was flashing guiltily to a tiny baby girl with his eyes and a smattering of Quinn's blonde hair on her head.

"I need to be alone for a while." Finn stood up. "Goodnight Kurt." And walked out of the kitchen.

Pavarotti whistled and hopped from his perch down to the bottom of the cage. Kurt sighed.

"I know… I'm going to have to tell him aren't I?"

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**A/N: If you review I'll love you even more ;) **


	15. Grace

**A/N: Sorry about how long it's taken for me to update. Literally everyday since I posted the last chapter I've said 'today is the day I will finish the next chapter' and uh… well, it _finally_ happened. I'm actually holding off returning a call that's potentially about a much needed job interview to post this... so... love me for it. Haha. **

**I cannot believe I've 250 reviews, like that's just… what? It's insane. I actually can't comprehend that. So I won't. Instead I'll just say thank you to all of you. You guys are _awesome_. Some of my favourite people in the world :).**

**In this chapter, certain things that I didn't plan for until later just kind of… happened. So, I officially have no idea where I'm going right now. But it's fun.**

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Blaine stared up at his ceiling. He could still see the few remaining glow in the dark stars he stuck up there as a kid. There weren't many left, and at night their glow was so faint you could barely see them any more, but they was still. He'd had the same bedroom since he was six years old.

He sighed and flicked his gaze over to the clock on the wall. It was 3.30 on a Saturday afternoon and he had nothing to do. Kurt was busy. Jeremiah was working (and he'd briefly toyed with the idea of going shopping just to 'accidentally' bump into him, but decided against it, he didn't want to come across as a weird stalker). He'd actually finished all the homework he'd been given for the break already...

Blaine. Was. Bored.

The soft tones of a Chopin piece filtered up the stairs and to his room. His sister had been playing for the past hour. Blaine had briefly thought about picking up his guitar for the first time in quite a while, but he just wasn't motivated to. _He didn't know what he wanted to play._

He needed to get out of the house.

Blaine sat up and quickly spotted his shoes by the door where he'd originally kicked them off. He ran his fingers through his hair, he hadn't put ay gel in it and his curls were wildly sticking up at all angles. For today he didn't really care. He'd decided finally, he'd visit his aunt. He'd been at her house a lot... but rarely with just her (and Beth) these days. Usually he was there because Kurt was.

He grabbed a Dalton hoodie, and slipped his shoes on. He headed down the stairs and into the dining room. His sister sat gracefully at the piano, her long dark hair fell down her back in loose waves, he smiled.

"Gracey."

She continued playing as though she hadn't heard him.

"Grace." he tried again, a little louder.

She stopped abruptly and turned around with a scowl on her face.

"That was the first time I've played it flawlessly."

"Sorry, I didn't know."

"What do you want?"

"I was going to visit aunt Shelbs... thought you might want to come."

Her eyes lit up. "Will Bethy be there?"

"Well... yeah of course."

"Ok." she grinned. "Just let me grab my things."

Apparently he was forgiven for interrupting her.

She came running down the stairs several minutes later, her hair now pulled back into a thick, messy pony tale, and a bag slung over one shoulder.

"Alight, lets go." She grinned.

Grace was two years younger than him, and was fairly similar to him. She spoke without thinking, and didn't have a mute button. She was almost always the centre of attention and basked in it completely. Sometimes Blaine found it strange, because when they were kids, she was quite quiet. He assumed because he and Cooper were always loud and competing against each other for attention and affection, so Grace had just hung back. As soon as Cooper disappeared off the college, it was like a switched was flicked and she became another person entirely.

He put on music, making sure it was something they mutually liked and the drive to Shelby's was relatively quiet.

"Are there any Warbler performances coming up soon?" she asked.

"Uh... no, nothing planned. Just the regional show choir competition in a few months."

"Oh... that's a shame." she said. "You guys are really good."

"Thank you."

"No really... how are your harmonies so tight? It's so hard to get a capella right."

"Hours, and hours... and I mean _hours_ of rehearsal."

She nodded and went quiet again. Blaine tried to think of something that they could talk about, but came up with nothing.

"Blaine?" she asked.

"Yeah?"

"How come you asked me to come with you?"

"What?"

"You go to Aunt Shelby's all the time and you _never_ ask me to come along. Why did you?"

Blaine stopped to think about it. Why did he ask his younger sister to come along? He shrugged.

"I don't know. I kind of wanted the company on the drive out for a change."

"Oh…"

"Plus, you're my baby sister, I can't leave you at home all alone, who knows what could happen to you?"

Grace rolled her eyes.

"I didn't play soccer for nothing. I can kick really hard."

"I know." He winced at the memory of her shoe colliding with his shin one time during a particularly vicious sibling argument. It had been so painful he'd been sure at the time that she'd fractured his shin.

They bantered back and forth for the rest of the trip. When Blaine finally pulled up in front of Shelby's house, he was more than surprised to see the black navigator parked in the driveway. He didn't know Kurt was going to be there…

"Who's car is that?" she asked.

"Uh… the babysitters."

"Oh."

"What?" he asked, she'd sounded disappointed.

"I was looking forward to seeing Beth."

"You're going to, come on." He said, opening his door and jumping out of the car.

"But Aunt Shelby isn't home. We can't just barge in on the babysitter." She followed him out of the car and up the driveway.

"Trust me, it'll be fine."

"How do you know?"

"I'm psychic." He said with a grin, and knocked on the door.

Shelby looked surprised when she opened the door and saw them.

"Oh, Blaine, Grace... hello."

"Hey Shelbs." Blaine grinned. "We didn't catch you at a bad time did we?"

"No, of course not." She said, opening the door wider and letting them in.

"Awesome. Is Beth here?" Grace asked. "She needs to know which one of her cousins is the cool one."

"She already knows me." Blaine said, mockingly looking confused.

"Ha, ha." Grace rolled her eyes. "Like you would ever be cool. So where is she?"

"Um... just sit in the living for a moment, if that's alright." she said.

"Ok."

Shelby left them alone in the living room, Blaine sat on the couch, while Grace wandered around looking at the various baby photo's that had already been place all over the room. When she was done she turned to Blaine with a sigh.

"What's taking Aunt Shelby so long?" she asked. It had only been several minutes since she left, but Blaine had to admit it had felt like longer. He shrugged.

"I'll go see what's taking so long, see if I can help at all. Maybe Beth's putting upa fight over something." he said, standing up.

"I'm coming too." Grace said.

Blaine just shrugged not really caring either way. He walked through the house, until finally reaching Beth's nursery. The door was only partially open and he could see the shadows of the people in there. He stopped to listen to the conversation for a moment... only to determine if it was safe to interrupt or not. Of course. Not to… eavesdrop at all. He felt Grace pause behind him as well.

"It's a bit over the top." He heard Shelby say.

"No, it's fashionable." Kurt's unmistakeable voce said, and Blaine almost felt himself sighing with relief. So Kurt _was_here. "If there is one thing Beth is inheriting from her father it's a good taste in fashion."

"She's six months old. You could dress her in a garbage bag and she wouldn't know the difference. I don't think fashion sense is heredity."

"Don't even joke about such things. She's not under any circumstances, ever, wearing a garbage bag. Sure fashion is heredity. I got mine from my mother she always dressed fabulously. And Beth will get hers from… Beth will inherit classy style. God knows it would be a tragedy if she got her mothers taste in clothes."

There was a pause.

"Not yours, of course, I mean... well, you know who I mean. There is such a thing as too much lace you know? That's why it's important to start them in good clothes young, so they grow up not knowing the difference."

"This is the most ridiculous conversation I've ever heard." Grace whispered.

Blaine heard her, but couldn't find the brain capacity to muster a response.

He'd thought it before, only briefly entertained himself with the thought before dismissing it, but now it seemed to truly be the case.

Kurt knew Beth's parents.

Well enough to talk about them quite trivially. He didn't really know what to think about that. Was Shelby okay with them being brought up like that? Like it was just nothing? How did Kurt know them? Blaine knew whoever they were… they'd been teenagers.

Did Kurt go to school with them? Had they asked him to baby-sit as an attempt to spy on his aunt on their behalf?

He shook his head. That was ridiculous. Well, not the idea of Kurt knowing them, but the spying… surely not.

"I think Beth will cope." Shelby said.

"Yeah, she will, as long as I'm around she'll never any less than four designer items at any given time." There was a pause. "For now. We'll up to six to seven when she gets older and won't grow out of them as quickly. And, if Broadway doesn't work out for me, I plan to be a fashion designer so by then this little girl here will always be fabulously dressed."

Blaine was so confused by now. Kurt was planning to be in Beth's life for that long? He was just a baby sitter.

Right?

He mentally shook his head. He needed to stop listening in on this conversation. It wasn't right he… he couldn't do that. He pushed the door open.

"Kurt-"

"Well, there's no screaming child like I thought there would be. What's the hold up been?" He asked, cheerily putting on a smile as though he had just overheard some of the most confusing snippets of information, well, ever.

"Blaine, hi." Kurt smiled. "I didn't know you were here."

"Woah, hottie alert!" Grace exclaimed, from behind him, going wide-eyed and staring at Kurt.

Blaine nearly slapped his forehead, but refrained. Only just.

"Grace! Filter... for the love of God."

She shrugged.

"I'm just saying... he's cute."

"He's gay. Like I am." Blaine said a little defensively, feeling _something_ in his stomach flare up as he watched his little sister look Kurt up and down.

… It was obviously protection. Yeah, his little baby sister shouldn't be looking at boys like that. Kurt might be gay, but other boys weren't.

That was obviously what that was.

"Yeah... right... that doesn't explain why you were checking out Dimity last time she was over."

"I told you, she was wearing the new Gucci jeans. That is workmanship that needs to be admired."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Grace nodded. "No straight guy would _ever_say that."

"Am I missing something?" Kurt asked, feeling the need to stop the conversation they were having.

"I'm Grace, this dork's younger sister." she sad, holding her hand out.

Kurt, hesitated for a moment, but shook it. "I'm Kurt... friend of Blaine's, and Beth's babysitter."

"Ohh... can you be my babysitter?" she asked.

Kurt looked at Blaine in alarm.

"Grace..."

"What? You heard him, he buys Beth designer clothes... maybe he buys designer clothes for everyone he sits for. There's this new Dolce and Gabbana-"

"Why don't we relocate to the kitchen?" Shelby interrupted quickly. Kurt gave her a grateful look. As she picked up Beth, and Grace followed her out of he room Kurt and Blaine fell behind.

Blaine went to follow them, but Kurt grabbed his wrist stopping him. He turned around, giving the boy a curious look.

"How much of that conversation did you hear?" he asked.

Blaine bit his lip, wondering for a moment how much to divulge. "Just the part about Beth's taste in fashion. Why?" He wasn't ready to bring it up. But if Kurt wasnted to… then so be it.

"No... no reason. I was just, um, curious." Kurt said, "I… it's not like I have anything to hide." His voice squeaked a little as he said that, but Blaine decided, for now, to ignore it. When Kurt realised this was the case he smiled. "I like your hair like that." He said, smoothly changing the topic.

Blaine frowned and patted his head; he cringed when his hand came in contact with soft, fluffy curls. He looked a mess.

"I, um, wasn't exactly expecting to um… to see anyone."

"I mean it. It looks nice."

"No, it doesn't. It's a mess."

"Well, maybe they could use a little taming." Kurt reach out and grabbed a curl between his fingers, straightening it out and watching it bounce back into place as he let it go. "But you shouldn't cage them like you do."

"Says the boy with perfect hair already. You don't know what it's like to live with this." He pointed to his head.

"This," Kurt pointed to his own head. "Takes half an hour. I don't wake up looking like this you know."

The first thing that came to Blaine's mind was to tell Kurt that he was lying and he probably looked perfect when he woke up, which then lead to an image of actually _being_ there in the morning when Kurt woke up. Which in turn scared the crap out of him.

He was trying to muster up a response when there was giggle.

"Are you guys seriously talking about hair product?" Grace asked.

Kurt arched an eyebrow. "What of it?"

She shrugged. "Nothing. Just… way to fit the stereotype."

Blaine rolled his eyes. "Don't listen to her, she's an idiot."

Kurt let out a small laugh and went into the living room. Grace turned back to Blaine and smirked.

"You're future boyfriend is all kinds of adorable." She said.

Blaine could feel his face heating up. "He's not… it's not…"

"Whatever you say big brother."

**x x x**

Kurt couldn't keep the smile off his face as he walked into the house, setting his keys on the kitchen counter. After about an hour of hanging around at Shelby's, the three of them, himself, Blaine and Grace had gone out to coffee.

And he'd had a lovely time.

Blaine was… different around Grace. He seemed more relaxed and not… not the boy who was lead singer for the Warblers… Kurt imagined that the boy he saw today was the Blaine from before… before Dalton, before the bullying. He'd seen glimpses of that boy before. But today was different.

Kurt hoped he'd see him more in the future.

He hadn't realised he'd been humming until he was partway up the stairs and his dad's voice interrupted him.

"You're in a good mood."

Kurt stopped and smiled as he walked back down the stairs and leant against the back of the couch where his dad and Finn were sitting watching a game.

"I had a good day." He said.

Initially he'd been worried. Shelby hadn't told him Blaine was over… so definitely hadn't told him Blaine had been standing right outside the door when they'd been talking. The worst part had been not quite remembering exactly what he'd said. But whatever it was… it was too much. But if Blaine had pieced it together, he sure did a good job of hiding it. Which made Kurt think he mustn't have, because there was no way Blaine would just let that slip by. Right?

"What did you do?"

"Well, I found this adorable Burberry skirt from their toddler collection for Beth that I just _had_ to get straight away, so I took it over this morning and-"

"Wait, Beth?" Finn twisted his body around to look at Kurt confused.

Kurt's mouth snapped shut.

There was literally not a single thought running through his head. He couldn't comprehend… what had he just said?

"Kurt?" Finn said. "Dude, you look kinda pale."

He nodded, because it was all he could do.

"Kurt," Burt said slowly. "I think… I think we should call a family meeting."

"Wait, what?" Finn said. "Why?"

"I… I think I need some time to think." Kurt said finally.

As he slowly walked away he could hear Finn asking his father,

"What just happened? Why is Kurt… who's Beth?"

* * *

**A/N: Well… there we go. I do love your reviews though so um… hit that button :). **


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